Can polls in Puducherry be deferred? High Court asks Election Commission

Chennai/Kolkata: The Madras High Court on Friday said a serious investigation was required into the allegations that the Puducherry unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party had access to voters' Aadhaar details and asked the Election Commission if the April 6 polls in the Union Territory could be deferred till completion of probe.

The commission submitted that polls cannot be deferred on mere allegations but informed the court that a show-cause notice has been issued to the BJP.

The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy raised the query when a public interest litigation from A Anand, president of the Puducherry unit of the Democratic Youth Foundation of India, came up for further hearing on Friday.

The bench asked the EC if it would be possible to defer the polls in the Union Territory beyond April 6, till completion of the probe on the allegation that the BJP was illegally using the Aadhaar data for canvassing.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Friday lashed out at PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah a day before the state begins voting in a closely-watched, flipping back their accusations of the ruling TMC runs extortion syndicates.

"They have two syndicates. One is a rioter, has sponsored riots in Delhi, Gujarat and UP. And the other one... has slowed industrial growth but is only growing his beard.

Sometimes he puts himself above Gandhi ji, above Rabindranath Tagore, sometimes calls himself Swami Vivekananda and names stadiums after himself.

One day he will sell the country too and name it after himself. Something is wrong with their head. It seems a screw is loose," she said.