Kolkata: Former IPS officer and BJP candidate Debasish Dhar was seen beating ‘dhak’, visiting temples, speaking to womenfolk, getting photographed with children, and canvassing on an open top jeep for the past few weeks, as he prepared for electoral debut from the Birbhum parliamentary seat.
On Friday, Dhar’s cavalcade screeched to a halt as the Election Commission rejected his nomination during scrutiny of paper citing technical faults in his documents.
“Due to non-submission of no due’s certificates, my nomination has been cancelled. It is quite unfortunate. I will approach the Calcutta High Court because there is a Supreme Court ruling from a few days ago about no due’s certificates,” Dhar told ThePrint.
The BJP had announced Dhar’s nomination in its eighth list, days after the IPS officer had resigned from service in March. Upon being nominated, Dhar had told ThePrint that it was “frustration” that forced him to quit his service and join the BJP.
The BJP candidate moved the Calcutta High Court, which refused to allow urgent listing of his plea challenging the cancellation of his nomination from Birbhum.
As of now, BJP’s second candidate Devtanu Bhattacharya, a former RSS pracharak, is the official candidate of the main opposition party. On the last day of nomination filing, the BJP fielded Bhattacharya as it anticipated Dhar’s candidature might run into technical problems.
As a senior district leader, Bhattacharya was overlooking BJP’s poll preparations in neighboring Purba Burdwan district. The BJP functionary was instructed to rush to Suri where he was holding organisational meetings. The decision to field a second candidate came from the top brass in Delhi, BJP functionaries said.
Earlier Tuesday, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee addressing a rally in Birbhum district slammed Dhar, who served under her government.
“They (central forces) killed five people in Sitalkuchi during the 2021 assembly election. The person who was posted there is now the BJP candidate. He said that the CM implicated him. But the truth is that he got caught in his own web of crimes. He doesn’t even have clearance in the cases against him. I would not have brought this up today if he hadn’t spoken about this. I urge him not to take lives here in Birbhum. BJP’s politics is the politics of taking lives,” Mamata said.
BJP state general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay claimed that the party read the warning signs and decided to field a second contender while refusing to give TMC a walkover. “The government had not cleared his no-dues certificate of his government accommodation as an IPS officer. So, he was unable to submit them. We won’t let the lotus (BJP symbol) slip in Birbhum,” Chattopadhyay told ThePrint.
Two-time sitting MP and Trinamool candidate Shatabdi Roy took potshots at Dhar, blaming the BJP’s internal squabbling in the TMC stronghold. “There was confusion within the BJP, then a second candidate was fielded. I am feeling bad, any person who files a nomination hopes to fight polls. Even though he would have lost, he would still have got a chance to fight. His candidature doesn’t matter to me,” the actor-turned-politician told the media in Birbhum during her campaign rally Friday.
Dhar’s sudden entry into politics to take on the Trinamool Congress after serving the West Bengal government, had put the focus on Birbhum that the ruling party in Bengal has held onto since 2009. Suspended by the Mamata Banerjee government for the Sitalkuchi firing during the polling in 2021, the IPS officer was afterwards sent on compulsory waiting.
Birbhum is in focus as Mamata’s most trusted lieutenant Anubrata Mondal is lodged in Tihar Jail for alleged cattle smuggling scam. With the Birbhum strongman’s absence on ground, the BJP hopes to overthrow the TMC and not without a reason. The difference in vote share between the TMC and the BJP in the last Lok Sabha election was only 6.14 percent.
When asked if it was a political conspiracy against him, Dhar told ThePrint, “Time will tell the truth”. Birbhum goes to poll on 13 May.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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