Saumitra Khan and Bharati Ghosh are not being allowed to enter their constituencies in West Bengal.
At least two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates from West Bengal are not being allowed to enter into their constituencies in West Bengal from where they are contesting elections this time for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP and now BJP’s candidate from Bishnupur Saumitra Khan and Bharati Ghosh, a former IPS officer and once a close aide of Mamata Banerjee who is seeking election from the Ghatal seat in Paschim Medinipur district, are being restrained from entering their constituencies for election campaigning.
Ghatal and Bishnupur will go to polls on 12 May.
For Saumitra Khan, the restraint order had been put in place following a Calcutta High Court order that banned him from entering into the Bankura district in Bengal. Incidentally, Khan is seeking election from the Bishnupur constituency which falls in the Bankura district and is, therefore, not being able to campaign for the elections there.
However, Khan, who is currently out of Bengal, spoke to The Sunday Guardian and said that his wife and party workers are campaigning for him in his constituency and he has moved the Supreme Court against the Calcutta High Court’s order and the case in the Supreme Court is likely to be heard on Wednesday.
“The TMC has filed all false cases against me to restrain me from going to campaign in Bishnupur because they know that they (TMC) will lose this seat. They have come to vindictive politics because just after I left the TMC and joined the BJP, cases were filed against me. If there was anything wrong that I was doing why did they not file cases before that, why just after joining the BJP?” Khan asked.
He further said: “If I am not being able to campaign because I have cases against my name, then how is Sudip Bandopadhaya, Aparupa Poddar, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Firad Hakim, Subrata Bakshi, who are all TMC members, campaigning there. They also have cases against them—the CBI has named them in the Saradha and Narada cases.”
Saumitra Khan is accused in cases of allegedly taking money from students and in return promising them jobs.
For Bharati Ghosh, the restraint for now is coming from the local TMC cadre on the ground in Ghatal and according to sources, the TMC has moved the Calcutta High Court for restraining her from campaigning in the Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency.
Bharati Ghosh has been accused of illegal exchange of banned notes for gold and at least 10 FIRs have been filed against her in different police stations in West Bengal.
However, the Supreme Court in February has granted her protection from arrest in all cases registered against her.