Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee reached the Calcutta High Court on Monday to sign some documents before submitting a counter affidavit against an election petition filed in connection with his massive poll victory from Diamond Harbour constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

He arrived at the court at around 11 am and remained there for about 15 minutes. Several lawyers who represent the TMC greeted him and sought selfies with the MP before he left the premises.

In July last year, the BJP’s Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha poll candidate Abhijit Das, who lost to TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee by more than 7 lakh votes, filed an election petition in the Calcutta High Court alleging large-scale rigging in the constituency.

Banerjee had won in Diamond Harbour by a margin of around 7,11,000 votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He got 10,48,230 votes, while his nearest rival Das secured only 3,37,300 votes.

In April this year, the high court heard the case and issued directions for preserving all election-related materials, including data, CCTV footage, and digital records from the constituency. The Election Commission and the district electoral officer were instructed to maintain these materials.

On August 19, the single bench of Justice Sugato Majumdar cautioned Banerjee’s counsel that the court may pass an ex parte order against him if he failed to respond to the election petition, following which his lawyers sought more time. However, the court set August 28 as the deadline for his response, cautioning that failure to comply would lead to an ex parte order.