Jahangir Khan
NEW DELHI: West Bengal Police Monday arrested former Trinamool Congress MLA Jahangir Khan, who became the centre of controversy during the assembly elections after repolling was ordered in his constituency, Falta, after the reports of irregularities.The arrest comes weeks after Calcutta high court’s vacation bench refused to extend the interim protection in five FIRs granted to the TMC strongman. Justice Partha Sarathi Chatterjee referred the matter to a regular bench.Earlier, Khan was granted interim protection by Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya till May 26, considering the repolls there on May 21. State earlier had approached Justice Bhattacharyya’s bench to vacate the order before the interim protection expired but the judge refused to intervene.The protection against arrested was given to Jahangir Khan after he moved Calcutta high court, seeking protection from any coercive action by the West Bengal Police, alleging that criminal cases were being repeatedly filed against him.The plea was filed two days after chief minister Suvendu Adhikari warned that he would personally handle the case of “Pushpa,” a reference to Khan.Addressing BJP workers in Falta on May 16, days 5 days ahead of the repolling in the constituency, CM Adhikari had warned Khan without naming him. “He (Khan) is a designated most notorious criminal and I will personally handle his case. So-called Pushpa is my responsibility now,” Adhikari told BJP workers.The chief minister also urged Falta voters to ensure a victory margin of over one lakh votes for the BJP candidate.In the run-up to the assembly elections, Khan, the Trinamool strongman, had referred to himself as “Pushpa” — the smuggler-turned-strongman character played by Allu Arjun in the two “Pushpa” films.The remark came in response to Uttar Pradesh-cadre IPS officer Ajay Pal Sharma, appointed by the Election Commission as a police observer in West Bengal, being likened to the “Singham” character portrayed by Ajay Devgn in the “Singham” film franchise.In the repolling, Debangshu Panda of BJP, for the record, won Falta by a record 1,09,021 votes, a shade higher than the 1-lakh margin that CM Suvendu Adhikari had asked for from the electorate.CPM came in a distant second – but a second, nevertheless – in the first election to an assembly seat after BJP’s victory in the state poll. This was BJP’s highest winning margin in the 2026 assembly elections, surpassing its 1,04,265 margin in Matigara-Naxalbari. In Falta, the party garnered 71.2% votes, up from 36.7% in 2021.Bengal’s Falta assembly constituency clocked over 88% turnout in the repoll as voters, guarded by heavy CAPF deployment, spoke of casting ballots “without fear” for the first time in years, while TMC flags all but disappeared after party candidate Jahangir Khan withdrew from the contest 48 hours before voting.
