A delegation, led by the BJP’s national general secretary and the party’s West Bengal observer Kailash Vijayvargiya, deposited an audio clip to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Saturday where chief minister Mamata Banerjee is purportedly heard cajoling a BJP leader from Nandigram to rejoin the TMC and help her win the seat.

After meeting the CEO, Vijayvargiya said they had met the state’s chief electoral officer and handed over the tape. He also claimed Banerjee was using her official position to influence the outcome of the bitterly-contested Assembly poll. Banerjee is pitted against her former protégé and current BJPcandidate Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram- the seat that propelled her to power in 2011 dislodging the Left Front from power after 34 years of unbroken rule. This audio clip created a huge controversy and went viral on social media amid polling for 30 Assembly seats in West Bengal with the BJP releasing the clip.

Advertisement

Vijayvargiya said that the BJP leader, Pralay Pal (in photo), hails from Nandigram and is a vice-president of the BJP’s Tamluk district unit. He was requested to work for the TMC in the Assembly elections by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, which is also an instance of misusing of her official power. Pal joined the BJP well ahead of Adhikari.

The BJP’s IT cell’s national head and Bengal co-minder Amit Malviya wrote on Twitter: “Massive! Mamata Banerjee calls Proloy Pal, BJP’s district vice-president in Nandigram and pleads for help! Proloy tells her that he was humiliated in TMC and he along with this family cannot betray the BJP. Pishi is definitely losing Nandigram and TMC Bengal.”

Vijayvargiya however praised the Election Commission of India for conducting ‘peaceful polling’ here. This time there was very little instances of rigging and incidents of violence. So we also gave our thanks to CEO. However, we demand there should not be a single instance of violence or rigging in the next phases,” he said.

He also condemned the attack on the car of Suvendu Adhikari’s brother Soumendu. “His car was damaged and the driver was injured by the goons. We also gave a list of several miscreants’ name and demanded their immediate arrest for conducting a peaceful election,” he said.