A day after the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal released an audiotape involving BJP leaders Mukul Roy and Shishir Bajoria, where they can be heard discussing what to tell the Election Commission (EC) amid the ongoing Assembly polls, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told reporters that he would like to know “who tapped the phone call.”
“Two BJP leaders were discussing over a phone call the demands made for transfer (of officers). These demands were made in writing. There is nothing secret in this. The question which needs to be raised is that who tapped the phone call.”Union Home Minister Amit Shah
In the clip, which has not been independently verified, Roy can be reportedly heard telling Bajoria to ask the EC to frame election norms favourable to the BJP. He further asks Bajoria to tell the EC to allow any voter of Bengal to be a polling agent in any booth in the state.
“This is done by an administrative order. There’s now written law for this. We have to explain to them why we are asking for this,” Roy reportedly says in the tape.
Roy further asks Bajoria to tell the EC that those voter slips which are not being distributed should be returned to the election observers, lest it go to the “other side”.
The Election Commission is yet to respond to this clip. Earlier, on 27 March, a BJP leader from Nandigram alleged that Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had called him to ask for help in the polls.
In a tape released by the BJP, which is yet to be independently verified, Banerjee can be heard asking Pal to help her in the upcoming elections. “You're a young man and we know you do a lot of work. Please help us this time. You'll see there will be no problem,” Banerjee reportedly says in the tape.
Shah, during his press conference on Sunday, 28 March, urged the people of Nandigram to bring ‘poriborton (change)‘ in Bengal by defeating Banerjee, who is standing against BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, who defected from TMC ahead of the elections. Nandigram goes to polls on 1 April.
Shah also said, “After discussions with booth level workers and party leaders, I can say out of 30 seats in West Bengal we will win more than 26 seats. We have got clear indications that BJP will win more than 37 seats out of 47 seats in Assam.” TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has questioned this claim.
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