Kolkata: Wednesday is going to be a very important day for West Bengal. In fact, a new bench will hear CM Mamata Banerjee's plea filed in the Calcutta High Court against BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's victory from Nandigram assembly seat in Bengal elections on Wednesday itself. Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal referred the matter to a bench of Justice Shampa government after Justice Kaushik Chanda parted ways with hearing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo's election petition. The matter has been listed for hearing at 2.30 pm today.
Suvendu Adhikari had defeated Banerjee by 1,956 votes from the Nandigram constituency in the assembly elections held earlier in the year. Justice Kaushik Chanda had disassociated himself from hearing the case on July 7. Justice Chanda had slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Mamata Banerjee for seeking her separation from the case. Banerjee's petition had sought separation from the hearing of Justice Chanda claiming that he was an active member of the BJP till he was appointed additional solicitor general of India in 2015 and since the election of a BJP candidate has been challenged, the verdict is likely to be biased.
Justice Chanda had said that he had never been the convener of the BJP's legal cell but had appeared before the Calcutta High Court in several cases on behalf of the party. Banerjee's lawyer had written to the acting Chief Justice of the High Court urging him to hand over his election petition to another bench.
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