Kolkata: CM Mamata Banerjee on Saturday alleged that attempts were made to cancel her nomination from Bhowanipore. She claimed that two false affidavits were filed against her. CM Banerjee had filed her nomination on April 8; it was accepted 48 hours later — on April 10 — following scrutiny. After the scrutiny process, Bhowanipore now has 13 candidates, including Banerjee, which is among the highest in Bengal. Eight independent candidates outnumber those filed by registered political parties. According to sources, the affidavits against Banerjee were filed by an independent candidate, a 44-year-old from Nadia. However, both were rejected.The CM said: “Our fight is not with the BJP, but with the BJP’s ‘vanishing machine’. In my own constituency, those traitors filed two false affidavits against me to cancel my nomination. They did not succeed but remember, they tried… They made many efforts to stop me from contesting. So, you can understand: if they can do this to me, what can they do to you?”According to sources, the complaints related to a “name mismatch” involving Ismat Hakim, CM Banerjee’s proposer and the wife of mayor Firhad Hakim. Ismat Hakim previously used her premarital surname, Ismat Ara, but has since updated all her documents to her marital name, Ismat Hakim. She has served as the CM’s proposer in every election the CM has contested in Bhowanipore since 2011. The issue was resolved only after she provided documentation to debunk the charges. “Usually, these matters take a couple of minutes. But we had an inkling of this when all the proposers were made to wait for two hours after the CM filed her nomination,” said a senior Trinamool leader tasked with supervising the Bhowanipore polls.“An objection was also raised alleging that incorrect information was provided regarding criminal cases. It was claimed that she had criminal cases against her two decades ago when she was an opposition leader in Bengal. This could not be proven, nor was any evidence produced,” the party senior said. Banerjee had written “not applicable” in that column.The third and largest problem Trinamool faced in Bhowanipore was the high number of candidates — 17. An EVM can only display 16 candidates; this created a situation where Banerjee’s name might have been relegated to a second EVM. Trinamool strongly objected to this. “A sitting CM cannot be pushed to a second EVM. It would have caused confusion,” the party senior said. However, with four nominations cancelled, the prospect of people voting across two EVMs has been eliminated.
