The TMC is challenging the BJP candidate Rahul Sinha's Rajya Sabha nomination, alleging discrepancies and suppressed information in his election affidavit, raising concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.
The TMC wrote to the Election Commission, alleging procedural irregularities in the scrutiny of nomination papers of BJP's Rajya Sabha candidate Rahul Sinha, and claimed that "discrepancies" in his election affidavit were overlooked by the returning officer.
In the March 6 letter, copies of which were shared with reporters on Saturday, the ruling party in West Bengal alleged that Sinha's Form-26 affidavit contained "suppressed information, inconsistencies and incomplete disclosures relating to financial declarations, assets, vehicles, liabilities and investments".
Sinha rejected the allegations and said all the papers and documents submitted during the nomination filing were "in order".
"The TMC wanted to cancel my candidature on false and flimsy pretexts, which were overruled by the returning officer," said the BJP nominee for the Rajya Sabha polls.
Senior TMC leader and minister Aroop Biswas filed the complaint and said, "The party pointed out the alleged discrepancies during the scrutiny of nomination papers of Biswajit (Rahul) Sinha, but their objections were ignored by the returning officer".
The TMC claimed, "After the scrutiny was virtually completed, a revised affidavit was produced on March 6, which had neither been made available earlier for verification nor uploaded in the public domain."
The party alleged that such a move amounted to "backdoor correction of information" and "violated" the spirit of Supreme Court directives mandating full and transparent disclosure of candidates' details to voters.
"We have requested the Election Commission to immediately examine these irregularities, declare the flawed scrutiny process null and void and reconsider the validity of the nomination," the TMC said in the letter.
The biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha are scheduled on March 16, when five seats from the state will go to polls.
The last date for filing nominations was March 5, while the scrutiny took place on March 6.
The ruling TMC has fielded minister Babul Supriyo, former DGP Rajeev Kumar, lawyer-activist Menaka Guruswamy and actor Koel Mallick as its candidates, while the BJP has nominated Sinha, a former West Bengal unit president, for the remaining seat.
In the 294-member West Bengal assembly, the TMC is expected to comfortably secure four of the five seats, while the BJP has the numbers to win one seat.