Calcutta HC to hear today Mamata Banerjee plea challenging Nandigram result

The Calcutta High Court will hear today the plea filed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee challenging Nandigram election results.

A bench of Justice Kausik Chanda will hear the case at 11 am.

The Election Commission had declared BJP's Suvendu Adhikari the winner in the fiercely contested election for the Nandigram constituency.

After her defeat in Nandigram, Mamata Banerjee alleged that the Returning Officer of the Assembly seat had said that he was threatened against recounting of votes.

Despite Banerjee losing the seat to Adhikari, who was once her close aide, the TMC registered a landslide victory in polls winning 213 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly. While the BJP lost the polls but emerged as the second-largest party with 77 seats.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) even wrote to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal seeking "immediate re-counting of votes and postal ballots" in the Nandigram constituency, but recounting was refused for reasons unknown.

"Such refusal is bad in law and coloured. We demand an immediate recounting of Nandigram AC 210 to preserve the sanctity of the electoral process," the TMC had said in a letter to the CEO.