TRIPURA BJP MLA JADAB LAL NATH GETS NOTICE FOR POLL CODE BREACH, BJP ACTIVIST BOOKED OVER ASSAULT ON PRESIDING OFFICER

The Election Commission (EC) on Sunday issued a show-cause notice to BJP MLA Jadab Lal Nath for violating its guidelines and got a case registered against miscreants who manhandled a presiding officer in the East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency, which voted on April 26.

An official from the chief electoral officer’s office told reporters on Monday that the North Tripura district election officer had served a show-cause notice to Jadab Lal Das for allegedly entering a polling booth in the Bagbassa Assembly segment under the East Tripura constituency and misbehaving with a booth-level officer.

The action came after a purported video of a presiding officer being manhandled went viral on social media. The video, shared on Facebook by the Opposition CPM, showed a group of people led by a man whom the party identified as BJP activist Kajal Das manhandling the officer in public. Security personnel rescued the officer later.

As per the Facebook post, the incident took place outside booth no. 22 under the Bagbassa Assembly segment in North Tripura district.

The election official, who did not wish to be named, said that Kajal Das and others who allegedly joined him in the assault in Bagbassa, were not even enrolled as voters at that booth and that Das was even prevented from entering the booth as per the commission’s guidelines.

The official said that a complaint was lodged at the Kadamtala police station against Kajal Das and a few others on Sunday and that the police had served Das a notice asking for his reply.

The subdivisional police officer in Dharmanagar was later asked to head an investigation team formed to inquire into the matter.

While the Opposition CPM and Congress have alleged gross violations of poll guidelines in different parts of the East Tripura constituency, the BJP has denied the charges.

In a jibe at Congress leader Sudip Roy Barman, state BJP vice-president Ashok Sinha wrote on social media on Sunday, “Scrutiny was held on the next day after elections. Leaders of all parties were there. Allegations of all were registered. Everything was discussed, proofs were [given]. Everyone saw, said everything was correct and signed. Election agent was there [in] behalf of Congress. He signed and said actions were properly held. Now they are crying alleging that everything was lost. Sudipbabu is keeping excuses for defeat ready.”

BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharjee has denied having any knowledge of the incident in Bagbassa. “If anything of this type happened, the police and Election Commission will look into it,” he said on Sunday.

The chief electoral officer has also suspended Sushankar Debnath, an agri-assistant posted at Lembucherra in West Tripura, for violating the model code of conduct by sending several politically motivated messages to a government-run WhatsApp group.

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2024-04-29T13:00:03Z dg43tfdfdgfd