Kolkata, May 3: The TMC on Sunday challenged the BJP to use its full machinery to win the Falta assembly seat, where fresh voting will be held on May 21 after the Election Commission countermanded the polls in the constituency, citing “severe electoral offences”.
In a post on X, the Mamata Banerjee-led party asked the BJP to bring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to Falta, and urged the EC to deploy 50,000 central force personnel, claiming that such measures would not have any effect on the electorate.
The fresh poll was ordered due to “severe electoral offences and subversion of the democratic process” on April 29, when voting in Falta was held in the second phase of the West Bengal assembly elections.
“Falta. Diamond Harbour. May 21. Spare no expense. Bring everything you’ve got. Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, if you have the spine for it, come yourselves. Deploy 50,000 Central Force personnel. Line every polling booth with armoured vehicles. Fly in every ‘Singham’ you have at your disposal,” the TMC wrote on X.
Uttar Pradesh-cadre IPS officer Ajay Pal Sharma, an EC-appointed police observer, who earned the moniker ‘Singham’ for his crackdown on criminals, had warned potential troublemakers of “appropriate treatment” in the constituency if they tried to disrupt the April 29 polling in West Bengal.
The TMC also accused the BJP of spreading misinformation.
“Run your IT Cell ragged with two weeks of nonstop misinformation. Have your paid media unleash as much ‘hawabaazi’ (making exaggerated claims) as their lungs will allow. And by all means, bring Gyanesh Kumar to Falta and let him oil every last gear of your machinery with his own hands,” the TMC said.
The ruling party claimed that the people of Falta would vote against the BJP.
“Do all of it. We insist. Because when the smoke clears and the votes are counted, it will be the people of Falta who have the last word. And the people of Falta have already decided. So come prepared. Or better yet, come prepared to lose,” the TMC said.
The commission said fresh polling across all the 285 booths in Falta in South 24 Parganas district will be held between 7 am and 6 pm on May 21, under “stringent security arrangements to ensure a free, fair and transparent” exercise.
Counting of votes for the constituency will take place on May 24.
