Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, on Saturday, delivered a scathing critique aimed at Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Lok Sabha candidate from Bengal’s Birbhum constituency, Debasish Dhar, following the Election Commission’s (EC) cancellation of Dhar’s nomination on technical grounds.
Accusing the former IPS Debasish Dhar of engineering the firing incident by Central Forces at Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar during the Assembly elections in 2021 that saw the death of four civilians, Banerjee while addressing an election rally at Dubrajpur in support of his party’s Birbhum candidate Satabdi Roy, said: “The rightful justice has been meted out to him. There is a saying that one would have to pay for his misdeeds. He (Dhar) had visited the temple at Tarapith before filing his nominations. Tara Maa (the goddess) has delivered the right justice. Birbhum is a religious place and a site for numerous Sati Peeths. The soil of Birbhum has given him (Dhar) what
he deserved.”
Dhar was the Superintendent of Police in Cooch Behar when the four deaths had taken place.
He was removed from his post as the top cop of the district and was sent to compulsory waiting. He had resigned from service and was nominated by the saffron party from the Birbhum Lok Sabha seat. Now, with Dhar’s nomination getting cancelled Debtanu Bhattacharjee who had also filed nominations will contest in BJP’s ticket from Birbhum.
The district election officer revoked Dhar’s candidature as he had not produced a requisite “no dues” certificate from the state government. Dhar had approached the judiciary over the cancellation of the nomination, however, his petition has not been accepted.
TMC’s party candidate Satabdi Roy who is a three-time MP from Birbhum LS seat also mocked Dhar over the cancellation of nomination.
“His position is like a bride waiting for the groom with all preparations of the marriage getting completed. However, the groom does not turn up at the end,” she said. After the political meeting at Dubrajpur, Banerjee attended another meeting at Jamalpur, East Burdwan in support of his party’s nominee Sharmila Sarkar.
Polling in Birbhum and East Burdwan is scheduled to be held on May 13.