"Regional TMC candidates falsified documents": Suvendu Adhikari suspects foul play in WB Panchayat polls, files RTI

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], June 30 : Sensing foul play by regional TMC party candidates contesting in the upcoming three-tier Panchayat Elections, Leader Of Opposition in West Bengal Suvendu Adhikari on Friday filed an RTI with State Public Information Officer and State Election Commission.

The Bharatiya Janata Party MLA has sought information after he suspected that a "large section" of Trinamool Congress party candidates, contesting on the seats reserved for the SC, ST & OBC communities have "falsified or distorted" their documents in order to wrongfully contest these seats.

Taking to Twitter, he said, "This scam has been perpetrated systematically by the Regional TMC Party in collusion with a section of corrupt State Govt Officials. With the intention to get to the bottom of this scam, as the 1st step, I have sought information from the State Public Information Officer; West Bengal State Election Commission, under Section 6 of the Right to Information Act, 2005. With the intention to get to the bottom of this scam, as the 1st step, I have sought information from the State Public Information Officer; West Bengal State Election Commission, under Section 6 of the Right to Information Act, 2005."

The BJP leader sought several questions in his RTI, including the number of seats reserved for the Candidates belonging to the Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and Other Backward Classes in the upcoming Panchayat polls.

He has also sought details of the number of District wise total reserved seats in each of the Three-tiers of the Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis and Zilla Parishads of all the districts and name/identification of the reserved seats in the three tiers of the specific district along with the information whether the seat is reserved for women or not.

Polling for panchayats in West Bengal is scheduled to be held on July 8 and the counting of votes will be done July 11.