ECI bars Abhishek Banerjee from entering Bengal counting centre, asks Mamata and Suvendu to leave mobile phones outside

TMC General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee. File Photo

The Election Commission of India (ECI), on Monday, barred Abhishek Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress General Secretary and the party's Lok Sabha member, from entering the counting centre at Hastings in South Kolkata as he is not a candidate in the recently held two-phase Assembly elections in West Bengal.

As Abhishek Banerjee arrived at the counting center in Hastings, accompanied by his security team, an instruction was issued by the ECI to the returning officers and counting observers, prohibiting his entry into the premises, confirmed by an official from the Chief Electoral Officer's (CEO) office.

Meanwhile, at Shakhawat Memorial Government Girls School in South Kolkata, where counting for the high-profile Bhabanipur Assembly constituency is still on, both the contesting candidates, namely Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, entered the polling centre premises with their mobile phones.

After noticing that the returning officers and the counting observers immediately contacted the CEO's office in Kolkata, which subsequently contacted the ECI's headquarters in New Delhi. Later, the ECI instructed the returning officer and the counting observers either to ask both the CM and LoP to keep their mobile phones outside the counting centre or seize the phones.

Meanwhile, as per the latest trend provided by the ECI, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won 11 seats and is comfortably ahead in 186 of the 293 Assembly constituencies where the counting is on, followed by Trinamool Congress, which has won two seats and is leading in 88, Congress is leading in two seats, Left Front-All India Secular Front (AISF) alliance is ahead in 2 seats.

A number of heavyweight members of the Mamata Banerjee-led cabinet, namely minister of state for finance (independent charge), Chandrima Bhattacharya, state women & child development and social welfare minister, Dr Sashi Panja, state fire services minister, Sujit Bose and the state education minister, Bartya Basu, among others, are trailing. At Bhabanipur, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is ahead, while in Nandigram, Suvendu Adhikari is leading.

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