West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee moves Calcutta High Court challenging Nandigram poll results; hearing on Friday

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday moved the Calcutta High Court challenging her narrow loss to BJP's Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram in the recent assembly elections.

The case will be heard at 11 am on Friday by Justice Kausik Chanda.

Banerjee, who wrested the lead from her former aide Adhikari in the later rounds of counting in Nandigram, ended up losing by 1957 votes after the final round. The result went against the grain of an election in which her Trinamool Congress trounced the BJP 213-77.


Soon after her defeat a furious Banerjee called the Nandigram result a "conspiracy", and said she would challenge it in court.

After she moved court Congress MP Saugata Roy said, “There is a timeframe of one and half months before which one has to move court challenging a result. So, Mamata Banerjee has moved the court within the timeframe.”

Adhikari, who has since been made the Leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly, was once Banerjee's trusted lieutenant and strategist. Despite her individual loss, she shook the Adihikari family citadels in Purba Midnapore.

BJP state vice-president Joy Prakash Majumdar reacted to the news of Banerjee moving court, saying that results of all 294 seats should be recounted as "TMC has done mischief in at least a 100 seats."

Banerjee will now contest a by-election from her former bastion Bhawanipore, The candidate from this seat, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, has vacated the seat for her.