Suvendu Adhikari moves SC, seeks transfer of Mamata Banerjee’s plea against poll win out of Bengal

New Delhi: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking the transfer of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s petition challenging his election from the Nandigram constituency outside West Bengal. The BJP leader seeks transfer of Banerjee’s plea, pending in the Calcutta High Court, outside the state, lawyer Kabir Bose said. Adhikari, a former close aide of the chief minister, who joined BJP in 2020, is presently holding the post of the leader of opposition in the state Assembly after defeating Banerjee in closely-contested polls by a margin of 1,956 votes. The election petition of the chief minister is presently being heard by a bench of Justice Shampa Sarkar of the high court and it has issued notice to Adhikari in the matter. Earlier on July 7, Justice Kausik Chanda of the high court had recused himself from hearing Banerjee’s petition challenging the election of Adhikari from Nandigram. Justice Chanda released the election petition of Banerjee from his court. Seeking his recusal, it was claimed that Justice Chanda was an active member of the BJP till his appointment as the Additional Solicitor General of India in 2015 and since the election of a BJP candidate has been challenged, there were apprehensions of bias in the adjudication of the election petition. Justice Chanda had said that he was never a convenor of the BJP Legal Cell, but had appeared in many cases representing the party before the Calcutta High Court. Banerjee’s counsel had earlier written to the Acting Chief Justice of the high court seeking reassignment of her election petition to another bench.