Dubious hustings ensured Jahangir Khan to pull out of race two days before Falta repoll
Trinamool Congress candidate and a close aide of Abhishek Banerjee Jahangir Khan withdrew from the re-election in Falta assembly constituency on Tuesday, less than 48 hours before the repolling on 21 May. Falta is one of the seven assembly constituencies covered by the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
The Trinamool Congress strongman Khan, who looked virtually alone in the battleground of Falta, stated that the Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s promise of a special package for the area’s development prompted him to take the decision. Khan said that he took the decision keeping Falta's interests in mind. In fact BJP ensured all the doors for his campaign are made congested nad infeasible to reach voters.
There has been no free and fair elections as the election commision has abused the process of electuion and helped BJP to lidge several FIRs against Jahangir Khan.
After suffering a disastrous defeat to the BJP in the recently-held assembly polls in 293 seats except Falta no heavyweights of Trinamool Congress including Abhishek were seen campaigning for Khan in the repolling phase in Falta, hardly 40 km away from Kolkata.
Abhishek, who won the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Diamond Harbour for third time since 2014 with a highest record margin of more than seven lakh votes across the country, didn’t also address a single repolling rally in Falta seeking votes for his trusted lieutenant Khan, who had given him a lead of around 1.70 lakh votes only from his assembly constituency.
"I am the son of Falta, and I want the area to be at peace and grow," Khan, who looked apparently helpless, told reporters today.
On the contrary hand in connivance with Election Staff. Suvendu, who attended a roadshow in Falta on Tuesday, said that Khan "ran away as he won't get any polling agent. Earlier on Saturday, he had also addressed a poll rally in Falta.
AIMIM’s president Asaddoddin Owaisi and AJUP’s Humayun Khan played villains in the hustings who are responsible for allowing BJP to make 85 perent Hindus vote bank and separating 15 percent Muslims from mainstream and making West Bengal Muslims lives harrible that helped BJP.
Jahangir Khan had no other way, as he won't get a polling agent, so he decided to run away as the Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari is trying to fish in troubled waters of electioneering as he told reporters on the sidelines of his campaign in Falta today.
That more than 100 of its party workers have been arrested in the Falta constituency while the EC continues to turn a blind eye. The decision taken by Jahangir Khan to withdraw from the Falta re-poll is his personal decision and not that of the party. Since the election results were declared on May 4, more than 100 of our party workers have been arrested in the Falta constituency alone.
Several party offices have been deliberately vandalised to create threat to voters, shut down and forcibly captured in broad daylight through intimidation, while the EC continues to turn a blind eye despite repeated complaints.
Even in the face of such pressure, our workers remain rock-solid and continue to resist the BJP’s intimidation unleashed through agencies and the administration. However, some eventually succumbed to the pressure and chose to step away from the field. TMC strongly condemns this and says our fight against the Bangla Birodhi BJP will continue both in Bengal and in Delhi.
On Monday, a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court granted interim protection to Khan from any coercive police action, including arrest, till the repoll process is completed and the results are announced. Khan had approached the single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya seeking an anticipatory bail plea as he was apprehending arrest ahead of the repoll.
Reportedly, the court had clarified that the interim protection would apply in connection with all FIRs registered against him. He has been facing five FIRs registered against him, one on May 5, three on May 10 and another on May 15. The charges levelled against Khan, as per the FIRs, are linked to alleged voter intimidation and other electoral irregularities during polling in Falta on April 29.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced re-election in Falta with 285 polling booths for May 21 following irregularities reported during the second phase of polling in the Bengal Assembly elections in 142 seats on April 29.
The first phase elections in 152 seats were held on April 23. The BJP managed to secure allreged historic win in West Bengal with a huge mandate of 207 seats by removing the names of voters of TMC and playing fraud, while Trinamool bagged only 80 constituencies. The saffron party formed its first-ever government in Bengal, with Suvendu Adhikari as the chief minister.
