The Rajarhat New Town Assembly seat witnessed a contentious counting process that continued for over 30 and half hours.
Trinamul Congress candidate and outgoing MLA Tapash Chatterjee was leading by 323 votes when counting was stalled on Monday night. A partial recount was ordered on Tuesday morning and, according to an update on the Election Commission of India website at 1.36pm, Piyush Kanodia of the BJP snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by a margin of 309 votes, which was revised a bit later to 316 votes. The Trinamul and CPM candidates were not present during the recount, they said.
Chatterjee said he would move court as counting, he claimed, had ended the night before and he was kept waiting for hours for the winner’s certificate but was finally refused. He also claimed that miscreants had tried to attack his car on his way home to Rajarhat from the counting venue at the dead of night.
In Round 18, the figures for which were added on the ECI website on Tuesday afternoon, BJP polled 637 out of 656 votes counted while TMC got five votes. Congress got more — seven votes. This took Kanodia’s aggregate votes to 1,06,564, past Chatterjee’s count of 1,06,248.
Seen & heard
The counting was held at Bidhannagar College, where two others seats, Bidhannagar and Rajarhat Gopalpur, were also being counted. The winning candidates of those two seats — Sharadwat Mukherjee and Tarunjyoti Tewari — collected their certificates and left around 8.15pm and 8.35pm respectively. But there was no update for a long time for the Rajarhat New Town seat after the 12th round, in which Chatterjee was seen leading by 12,728 votes.
Around 9.25pm, there was a yell in chorus from the counting hall which could be heard from downstairs. Over a dozen BJP counting agents came running out triumphantly to meet supporters outside, shouting that they had won by 2,800 votes.
CPM candidate Saptarshi Deb left the venue around 11pm. But there was no sign of the other two. When Chatterjee finally emerged around 1am, the seat was still officially undecided.
‘Abused & attacked’
Speaking to The Telegraph Salt Lake on Tuesday at noon, Chatterjee said he had stood his ground despite being heckled by BJP agents. “My counting agents were threatened and made to leave when they saw my lead becoming sizeable. Only my colleague Dumpy (Shahnawaz Ali) Mondal and I stayed till the end, despite threats and shoves. My victory margin was 323 votes, which the ECI website also showed. Still they did not give me the certificate. Democracy has been murdered,” the former MLA said.
Tapash Chatterjee of Trinamul Congress walks into the counting hall at Bidhannagar College at noon. He was leading by 6,030 votes then.
Chatterjee alleged that his agents started getting pushed out of the counting hall during the 10th and 11th rounds. “At that point, I asked for a recount of those rounds but later, on seeing that I still had managed to retain a slender lead I was ready to accept the certificate. This morning, the BDO’s office suddenly sent word to my chief election agent that there would be a recount which would start within half an hour or so. My counting agents were scattered. The identity papers of some had been torn by BJP goons, some are injured after being assaulted. There was no way I could get my team together at such a short notice. Nor do we feel safe after seeing the inaction of the Central forces despite seeing us being intimidated and pushed out.”
Chatterjee said he had mailed to the returning officer and the chief election commissioner, urging them to check and release the CCTV footage on how he was abused and shoved, and his agents heckled. “I have documents of counting figures till the 17th round. I am seeking legal counsel.”
“There were attempts to chase and stop us at night on the way back till Baguiati. Our driver dodged the attackers and took us to safety by a circuitious route. How could we return for the recount after such intimidation?” said Mondal, who had left with Chatterjee by the same car.
The returning officer, Md Alimuddin, said the recount had taken place on the basis of a demand by Kanodia. “The 18th round was not included in last night’s lead. Today, the last three rounds — round 15, 16 and 17 — were recounted,” he said. The phone disconnected — and remained switched off — before more questions could be asked.
saltlake@abp.in