Kajal Sinha, the party candidate from Khardah, had succumbed to COVID on 25 April. His wife, Nandita Sinha has now filed a case of culpable homicide against Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain, accusing the Election Commission (EC) of murder.
Sinha has faulted the EC of having “self-serving blind motives”, and wrote in her complaint, “While the entire nation was struggling to cope with the coronavirus crisis, the ECI decided to carry out the Assembly elections in the state of West Bengal over eight phases from 27 March to 29 April,” NDTV reported.
Along with Sinha, two other candidates from Revolutionary Socialist Party and one independent candidate Samir Ghosh also succumbed to COVID-19 during the eight-phase long elections.
Sinha added, “In comparison, elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry were held and completed in one day in one phase.”
Kajal Sinha had been undergoing treatment at Beliaghata ID Hospital in Kolkata and passed away after being on ventilation for three days.
Election Commission Has the Blood of Patients on Their Hands: MP Souguata Roy
Nandita Sinha wrote in her complaint that, “The EC has shown complete unpreparedness, negligence, lack of accountability, and utmost disregard towards the lives of the common people”, The Hindu reported.
TMC MP Sougata Roy was quoted as saying, “The Centre and the EC have the blood of COVID-19 patients on their hands. The action of the BJP-led government at the Centre and the EC contributed to the super-spread of coronavirus in Bengal in April. The virus was not that active in March,” PTI reported.
Nandita Sinha’s move also comes two days after the Madras High Court used the harshest of words against the EC holding them responsible for the current COVID situation and said, “Your Election Commission should be put up on murder charges probably.”
She said the safeguards applied were illusory and added that the EC chose to continue the eight phases of polls despite having reason to believe that it could lead to a further outbreak of COVID infection.
AITC member Madan Mitra tweeted a graph showing the rise of COVID cases in West Bengal.
(With inputs from PTI, NDTV and The Hindu)
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