Taking up an election petition by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee challenging the poll results in Bhabanipur assembly seat, Justice Gaurang Kant of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday told her lawyer that his elder brother is a BJP spokesperson and he will hear the matter after full disclosure so that there are no issues later on.After the preliminary hearing of Banerjee’s petition challenging the election of BJP nominee Suvendu Adhikari from Bhabanipur assembly constituency, Justice Kant ordered the preservation of CCTV footage of the counting hall on May 4, EVMs and VVPAT machines of all polling stations in the constituency.At the outset, while taking up the TMC chief’s election petition, Justice Kant told her lawyer Kalyan Banerjee, himself a TMC Lok Sabha MP, that he wanted to “make it very clear that my elder brother is a national spokesperson for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).”Stating that this might be of some concern as far as the petition is concerned, Justice Kant said he will hear the election petition “after full disclosure so that you don’t have any issues later on.”Kalyan Banerjee told the court that he has all “confidence and regard” for the judge.Stating that he knows his Judge, Banerjee said that he has appeared before this court earlier and added, “My confidence and respect to you as a judge is not determined by any other factor.””I have confidence in the judiciary, and I believe Indian Judiciary can be independent only when a judge is independent,” the senior advocate said.He said that Justice Kant is one of the gentleman and erudite judges of the high court and feels that no one is a factor to him, whether a relative or not.”We are here to dispense justice, (It) doesn’t matter to us,” Justice Kant said.On a prayer by Kalyan Banerjee, the high court directed the Election Commission to preserve and keep in safe custody the CCTV footage of the counting centre at Sakhawat Memorial School at Bhabanipur on May 4, when the counting of votes for the state’s elections was held, including footage inside and outside the counting hall.Justice Kant also ordered preserving the EVMs, including control units and ballot units used in all polling booths of Bhabanipur and all VVPAT machines used in the constituency.The judge directed that the CCTV footage, EVMs and VVPATs will not be erased, overwritten, destroyed, tampered with, transferred, redeployed, opened or dealt with in any manner without the permission of this court.The court said that the EVMs used at all polling stations concerned will be kept in the custody of the district election officer till final disposal of the petition by the courts.The court directed the counsel for the respondents in the petition to file their affidavits in opposition by four weeks and an affidavit in reply by the petitioner within four weeks thereafter.The matter will come up for hearing again after 12 weeks.The election petition was filed by Mamata Banerjee on allegations of corrupt practices, illegal deletion of voters from the electoral rolls, irregularities in counting and non-compliance with the provisions of the Constitution and the Representation of the People’s Act.It was alleged that a substantial number of voters were unlawfully deleted from the electoral rolls during the SIR process, and the returning officer for the constituency was appointed despite an alleged conflict of interest.Kalyan Banerjee also alleged that serious irregularities occurred during the counting process on May 4, resulting in the exclusion of the petitioner’s counting agents from the counting hall and causing subsequent prejudice to the petitioner.It was claimed that the election result was affected by the alleged irregularities. Kalyan Banerjee submitted that irregularities occurred after the 12th round of counting.He claimed that from an 18 per cent lead in her favour, it went to an 81 per cent lead in favour of Adhikari, and maintained that CCTV footage will show the occurrences inside the counting hall.Also alleging a “quid pro quo” arrangement, Kalyan Banerjee stated that the returning officer for the Bhabanipur seat election held the same position in the 2021 Nandigram election, where Adhikari and Mamata Banerjee were contestants.He alleged favouritism on the part of the returning officer and that in 2021 also Mamata Banerjee lost the election in Nandigram.Kalyan Banerjee further stated before the court that immediately after Adhikari took oath as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the officer was made joint secretary in the CMO.Kalyan Banerjee stated that the state’s Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal was made the chief secretary of the state after the election.He also pointed to Subrata Gupta, the special roll observer for the SIR process in West Bengal and thereafter the special observer for the state assembly polls, stating that immediately after the election, he was made special advisor to the chief minister.He stated before the court that at the end of the 12th round of counting, the petitioner had a lead of 7,184 votes, but thereafter the situation changed drastically.Adhikari won the election in Bhabanipur by 15,105 votes, defeating Mamata Banerjee.