Overview
- The BJP’s third list for West Bengal names the Panihati candidate as the slain RG Kar doctor’s mother and takes its slate to 275 of 294 seats.
- The candidate said she accepted the ticket to “uproot the TMC” over women’s safety, as TMC leader Kunal Ghosh criticized the move and pointed to her past complaints about the CBI and rebuffed requests to meet top BJP leaders.
- TMC leaders alleged electronic voting machines could be hacked and said the Election Commission is favoring the BJP, citing the removal of 73 returning officers and the posting of outside observers they described as tainted.
- Trinamool’s Abhishek Banerjee campaigned in Nandigram, pledged to take responsibility for the seat, and backed Pabitra Kar against BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, who is also contesting Bhabanipur against Mamata Banerjee.
- Voting is scheduled in two phases on April 23 and April 29 with counting on May 4, as the TMC also challenges voter-roll deletions from the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision, which it says cut genuine voters.