BJP's "Delhi Voter" Mukul Roy Has To Leave Bengal During Polls: Trinamool

Trinamool Congress on Saturday urged the Election Commission to direct Mukul Roy to leave the constituencies in West Bengal that are set to go to polls on May 19, stating that the BJP leader is a "Delhi voter."

"Mukul Roy is a voter of Delhi and is lawfully not entitled to stay in any constituency in Bengal going to polls on May 19 on commencement of 48-hour restriction period," TMC spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien wrote in the letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora.

Nine parliamentary constituencies in West Bengal namely Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Jadavpur, Diamond Harbour, South, and North Kolkata will go to polls tomorrow. Counting of votes for all 42 seats in the state will take place on May 23.

Derek O'Brien alleged that Mr Roy is influencing voters and the poll process during his stay in the state. "Moreover, he is engaged in the offence of securing entry and distribution of illegal cash among voters through his CAPF security personnel to influence the voters to vote for BJP, and thereby vitiating free and fair polling on May 19," he said in the letter.

Terming the move "highly illegal", Mr O'Brien, on behalf of TMC, said the Election Commission should take "immediate action" against the BJP leader.

Mr Roy, a former aide of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had left TMC and joined BJP in 2017.

Campaigning in West Bengal ended on Thursday after violence and clashes between BJP and TMC workers took place during BJP president Amit Shah's roadshow in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Congress leader and Berhampur parliamentary constituency candidate, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, had also claimed that TMC might incite violence during polling for Kandi and Nowda assembly by-elections in West Bengal.

"TMC will try to incite violence with the help of police to win those two seats. If any violence breaks out then Murshidabad Congress, as well as Bengal Congress, will come out on the streets and immobile Murshidabad and the entire state," Mr Chowdhury had said on Friday.