Trinamool Congress Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal

Kolkata: In an embarrassment to Trinamool Congress, its Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal on Sunday stoked controversy after he made an appeal to the Election Commission (EC) officials to let him rig the polls and allow his people to "manage" 500-600 votes per booth.

Mondal went on to say that the EC officials can take help from TMC block presidents while discharging their duty and the party will extend its full support but in exchange, he and his people should also be allowed to do "their jobs." The opposition has been left fuming over the comments with the BJP writing a letter to the EC for his speech.

"This is a very important election and everyone has to be responsible. And I request all the Presiding officers to make way for TMC to register poll votes with folded hands," Mondal said.

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Anubrata Mondal is known for his controversial statements and was recently in news for challenging BJP president Amit Shah to contest from Birbhum constituency. On the BJP's target of winning at least 25 seats of the 42 parliamentary constituencies, Mondal had said that Shah was living in a "fool's paradise."

Mondal had claimed that if Amit Shah contests from Birbhum he would ensure that he loses by a margin of over five-six lakh votes. "I assure you that if he contests in Birbhum we (TMC) will defeat him by a margin of five to six lakh votes," Mondal had said.

In response, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh had taken a jibe suggesting Mondal to concentrate on protecting his political turf rather than challenging others. Ghosh claimed that BJP will win Birbhum and Bolpur seats where Mondal holds sway.