NEW DELHI: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday stated that the so-called 'Pushpa' Jahangir Khan is now his responsibility and called for a violence-free re-poll in the Falta assembly constituency, scheduled for May 21.
"So-called Pushpa is my responsibility now; Falta repoll must be violence-free," Adhikari was quoted as saying by PTI.
In the run-up to the elections, Khan, a strongman of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the party's candidate from Falta, had likened himself to 'Pushpa'—the smuggler-turned-strongman character played by Telugu actor Allu Arjun in the two 'Pushpa' films. This remark came in response to UP-cadre IPS officer Ajay Pal Sharma, who was appointed by the Election Commission as a police observer in West Bengal and had been compared to 'Singham'—the police officer character portrayed by Ajay Devgn in the 'Singham' film series. In a viral video, Sharma was seen warning Khan's family, prompting Khan's retort.
"Tell him, we'll deal properly with him if his men continue to threaten...don't cry or regret it then," Sharma said in the video.
The Election Commission ordered a re-poll in the Falta constituency after it was discovered that the button next to the BJP's symbol on electronic voting machines had been taped at several polling booths. Counting of votes is scheduled for May 24. In the West Bengal assembly elections, held on April 23 and 29, the BJP ousted the TMC, ending the Mamata Banerjee-led party's 15-year rule and forming its first government in the state. The elections saw a turnout of over 90% in both phases.
Adhikari, a former TMC leader, won from both his bastion Nandigram and Banerjee's Bhabanipur stronghold, where he defeated the now-former chief minister in a repeat of their 2021 Nandigram contest, in which he had narrowly prevailed. He has since vacated the Nandigram seat and retained Bhabanipur.
