‘Pushpa’ moves High Court seeking respite from arrest 72 hours before Falta voting

Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate for the Falta assembly constituency, Jahangir Khan, has formally approached the Calcutta High Court seeking a protective order against arrest. The High Court has acknowledged the urgency of the matter and is highly likely to conduct the crucial hearing at 2:00 PM on Monday. Jahangir Khan’s legal camp has explicitly claimed that a barrage of politically motivated and completely baseless First Information Reports (FIRs) have been slapped against him in a calculated attempt to disrupt his campaign trail.

The Falta constituency, situated under the high-profile Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha jurisdiction, has been a major flashpoint of controversy ever since the Summary Revision (SIR) electoral roll phase began. As the electoral campaign progressed into its final lap, opposition parties consistently pointed fingers at Khan, accusing his faction of orchestrating widespread voter intimidation across the constituency.

To counter the volatile law and order situation, the Election Commission of India (ECI) executed a strategic move by appointing Uttar Pradesh's renowned encounter specialist and 2011-batch IPS officer, Ajay Pal Sharma, as the special police observer for Falta. Dubbed "Singham" for his fierce track record, Sharma personally visited Khan’s residence to issue a stern legal warning against electoral malpractices, a confrontation that instantly went viral on social media. Khan hit back in the media, declaring that if the officer was "Singham," he was "Pushpa" who would never bow down. Following widespread allegations of EVM rigging and taped booths on the initial polling day, the poll panel completely scrapped the previous exercise and announced a mandatory re-election across the entire Falta segment on May 21, with the official results scheduled for declaration on May 24.