Sanchita Chatterjee, BS News Agency: The High Court has ordered preservation of all CCTV footage and EVMs in the case filed challenging the Bhavanipur by-election results. No information can be deleted without the permission of the court. The next hearing of the case will be held after two months. The Calcutta High Court has given an important order in the case filed challenging the election results of the Bhavanipur assembly constituency. A bench of Justice Gaurang Kant on Tuesday ordered that all CCTV footage, EVMs and VVPATs of the Bhavanipur counting centre should be preserved. No information or footage can be deleted without the permission of the court. The next hearing of the case will be held after two months. In the hearing, Trinamool MP and lawyer Kalyan Banerjee argued for former Chief Minister and Trinamool candidate Mamata Banerjee.
He claimed that Mamata Banerjee was leading by about 7,800 votes until the first 12 rounds. Then the Trinamool agents were thrown out of the counting center and later BJP candidate and current Chief Minister Subhendu Adhikari led by a huge margin. The lawyer alleged that the returning officer of the 2021 Nandigram election was given the responsibility of Bhavanipur and he is currently the Joint Secretary in the Chief Minister's Office. This is why doubts have been expressed about the voting process. It is worth noting that Subhendu Adhikari defeated Mamata Banerjee from Bhavanipur constituency by about 15,000 votes in the 2026 assembly elections. The Trinamool leader has approached the High Court challenging that result.