KOLKATA: Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday alleged that the ruling Trinamool Congress did not allow thousands of genuine voters to exercise their franchise in the recently held by-elections to four assembly seats in West Bengal.Adhikari, who staged a dharna outside the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata on Sunday against alleged post-poll clashes in the state, said he would bring 100 such voters to the Governor’s House and ask them to make formal complaints to the Election Commission.Responding to the allegations, senior TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said repeated rejections of BJP by the people of West Bengal in every election have led to despair among leaders like Adhikari, who had previously made tall claims about getting a high number of seats in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls.The TMC won all four assembly seats in West Bengal, where by-polls were held on July 10.”I will also gather 100 deprived voters before the Raj Bhavan and expose how they were intimidated by TMC on the polling day before the media. They themselves will narrate their experiences,” the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly said.Adhikari, the Nandigram MLA, and other BJP leaders like Tapas Roy and Rudranil Ghosh participated in the protest outside the Raj Bhavan along with 300 saffron party workers.The Calcutta High Court had allowed the BJP to stage a dharna outside the Raj Bhavan for four hours following a plea by Adhikari.The saffron party leader cited an instance that Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had staged a similar protest at the same spot on October 5 last year.Adhikari said the BJP will observe July 21, which is commemorated as Martyrs Day by TMC since 1994 every year, as ‘Death Day of Democracy’ since, he alleged, the ruling dispensation has stifled dissent and violated democratic principles after it assumed power in the state in 2011.TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said July 21 had not been just a day but a date integrated with the emotions of crores of TMC supporters in Bengal.Thirteen Youth Congress activists were killed in police firing on July 21, 1993, when the CPI(M)-led Left Front was in power and Mamata Banerjee was in the Congress.”It is pathetic how the BJP is showing disrespect to the sentiment of the families of the victims and opposition workers who braved the atrocities and terror by CPI(M) in those days. By choosing July 21 as the day of protest, leaders like Adhikari are showing the bankruptcy of their thinking,’ he said.
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