Kolkata, 07 March (H.S.): The All India Trinamool Congress has written to the Election Commission of India alleging procedural irregularities in the scrutiny of nomination papers of Rahul Sinha, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal.

Copies of the letter were shared with reporters on Saturday. The ruling party alleged that Sinha’s Form 26 affidavit contained “suppressed information, inconsistencies and incomplete disclosures” related to financial declarations, assets, vehicles, liabilities and investments, which were allegedly overlooked during the scrutiny process.

Rejecting the allegations, Rahul Sinha said that all documents submitted during the filing of his nomination were in proper order. “The TMC tried to cancel my candidature on false and flimsy grounds, but the returning officer overruled their objections,” he said.

Senior TMC leader and state minister Aroop Biswas filed the complaint and claimed that the party had pointed out the alleged discrepancies in the documents of Biswajit (Rahul) Sinha during the scrutiny of nomination papers, but their objections were ignored by the returning officer.

The TMC further alleged that after the scrutiny process was nearly completed on March 6, a revised affidavit was produced which had neither been made available earlier for verification nor uploaded in the public domain. According to the party, this amounted to a “backdoor correction of information” and violated the spirit of directives issued by the Supreme Court of India mandating full and transparent disclosure of candidates’ details to voters.

In its letter, the party urged the Election Commission to immediately examine the alleged irregularities, declare the scrutiny process null and void, and reconsider the validity of the nomination.

The biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal are scheduled to be held on March 16 for five seats. 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 Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar, lawyer-activist Menaka Guruswamy and actor Koel Mallick as its candidates. The BJP has nominated Rahul Sinha, a former state 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.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh