Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has turned down all the allegations and complaints filed by BJP with the commission on the alleged election malpractices during the Bhabanipur by-elections on Thursday. The commission has turned down the complaint against state ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee that they were trying to influence the voters during the polling phases.
A total of 29 complaints regarding Bhabanipur were submitted to the commission on Thursday. Out of them, the commission has rejected or turned down 23. The DEO, South, Abanindra Singh said that all these allegations were baseless. A total of 41 complaints were filed relating to the three constituencies namely Bhabanipur, Samsergunj and Jangipur, that went for polls on Thursday. ECI sources said that the commission examined the complaints but did not find any merit in those complaints.
BJP's complaints about election malpractices in certain booths like 151, 160, 162 and 172, were also rejected by the ECI. Firhad Hakim alleged that it was BJP's ploy to keep the election commission tense during the polling period. He also rubbished BJP candidate, Priyanka Tibrewal's allegations of booth jamming.
"The new BJP candidate is not aware of the culture of Bhabanipur. The people here overwhelmingly come to participate in the festival of democracy. The sentiment of the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee is associated with this constituency," he said.
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