Kolkata: A fight of gab has embroiled in West Bengal after the state unit of the BJP moved to the Election Commission of India (ECI) for debarring the candidature of two Trinamool Congress candidates -- Mala Roy from Kolkata Dakshin and Haji Nurul Islam from Basirhat, claiming that Mala Roy is also the chairperson of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) haven't resigned from the post before filing her nomination and Islam haven't attached a ‘no dues certificate' along with the documents.
Roy has rubbished BJP's argument by claiming that she was the KMC chairperson even when she contested and won the Kolkata Dakshin seat in 2019. “So why is this late awakening? Since 2019, I have not drawn any salary as the KMC chairperson. The BJP knows for sure that it will face defeat in the elections and hence it is trying to malign me and my party over baseless issues,” Roy told media persons on Wednesday evening.
However, BJP General Secretary in West Bengal, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, argued that even if Roy claims that she is not drawing any salary as the chairperson of KMC, she will not be out of the ambit of ‘office of profit'. “Even using office infrastructure comes within that ambit,” Chattopadhyay argued.
As regards along with his nomination papers because as per rules, anyone who held a public position must produce a 'no dues certificate' issued by the government for the last 10 years. On his part, Islam said that after being a Trinamool MP from 2009 to 2014, he also served as an MLA. “No one raised this issue against me before. The BJP is doing this out of fear of defeat,” Islam said.
CPI-M central committee member Sujan Chakraborty, meanwhile, backed Chattopadhya’s arguments and said: “The nomination should be cancelled if the ‘no dues certificate’ is not attached. Previously, the nomination of BJP’s first candidate from Birbhum was cancelled on the same ground. Similarly, Mala Roy's nomination should also be cancelled if there are lapses in the filing process."
Source: IANS