Lok Sabha Election: Former Calcutta High Court judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of BJP wins from Tamluk

Former Calcutta High Court Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay has won the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from the Tamluk constiutency in West Bengal on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket..As per the official website of the Election Commission of India, the former judge got a total of 7,65,584 votes, which was 77,733 more than his nearest rival from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Debangshu Bhattacharya.The Tamluk seat falls in the Purba Medinipur district.Notably, this is the constituency from which now BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari was twice elected to Lok Sabha on TMC ticket in 2009 and 2014..Justice Gangopadhyay had resigned from service in March this year and joined the BJP. Even as a judge, Justice Gangopadhyay had been a vocal critic of Mamata Banerjee led TMC government in the State. The former judge has been in the thick of things in the recent past over his controversial orders and statements.He had accused Justice Soumen Sen of "acting for a political party in the State".The Supreme Court had to eventually take cognisance and and transfer all proceedings to itself in some cases before Justice Gangopadhyay.A High Court judge since May 2018, Justice Gangopadhyay has repeatedly been accused of flouting the norms of judicial discipline.In April 2023, Justice Gangopadhyay, who was then dealing with a batch of petitions regarding the 'School Jobs for Cash Scam,' had given an interview to a local Bengali news channel on the alleged role of TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee in the scam.The Supreme Court took strong objection to this, observing that sitting judges had no business giving interviews to TV channels.Later, the Supreme Court had to hold a special late evening sitting only to stay his order calling for a report from its Secretary General..Notably, the Election Commission had in May imposed a 24-hour campaigning ban on him over his remarks against West Bengal Chief Minister leader Mamata Banerjee..Read more about Justice Gangopadhyay here.