KOLKATA: The Election Commission on Monday rejected the nomination of Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, the Left Front’s candidate for the Rajya Sabha election on August 8, as he failed to submit his papers by the deadline of 3 pm on July 28.
The commission said the nomination papers were also incomplete, having no supportive affidavits.
However, the Left Front’s leader in the West Bengal Assembly Sujan Chakraborty contested the Election Commission’s decision. He said the papers were filed on time and said the rejection was a 'Trinamool conspiracy'.
Chakraborty said, “The cancellation of a candidate's nomination after more than 48 hours is unprecedented in the history of West Bengal. We see a deep conspiracy by the Trinamool Congress."
The Election Commission had objected to Bhattacharya's filing on July 28 for not adhering to the deadline but sent the papers for scrutiny after the Left Front claimed they were on time.
By viture of this device -- planned or unplanned -- Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates will now take five Rajya Sabha seats and the TMC-supported Congress candidate Pradip Bhattacharya will take another unopposed.