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TMC delegation to meet state poll officer in Bengal today; seek early bypolls
Elections in two assembly seats are pending, and so are bypolls in five assembly constituencies, including Bhabanipur in south Kolkata from where chief minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to contest
A delegation of the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal is likely to meet the state’s chief electoral officer today with the plea to hold bypolls in the state at the earliest.
Elections in two assembly seats are pending, and so are bypolls in five assembly constituencies, including Bhabanipur in south Kolkata from where chief minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to contest.
“A team of TMC leaders will meet the election commission officials in the state on holding elections and bypolls, which are pending,” said Partha Chatterjee, state minister and TMC’s secretary general.
Even though the TMC returned to power for the third consecutive term, Banerjee was defeated in Nandigram by her protégé-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari of BJP. Banerjee took oath as the chief minister on May 5 and will now have to get elected within six months from May to continue on the post.
The TMC-delegation comprising parliamentarians met the full bench of the Election Commission of India on July 15, seeking bypolls at the earliest.
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Elections in two seats in Murshidabad were cancelled when the candidates died of Covid-19 in April. Later, two BJP MPs, Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar, who won the assembly polls resigned. Two other TMC legislators died after contracting Covid-19 infection, while TMC MLA from Bhabanipur, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, resigned so that Banerjee could contest from the seat in the bypolls.
“By-elections should be held as early as possible. The Covid-19 situation is under control.If the third wave comes then you can’t do anything. A week’s time for election campaigning would be enough,” Mamata Banerjee had told the media a few days ago.
The state is reporting around 700-800 new Covid cases every day. The daily count crossed the 20,000-mark in mid-May soon after the assembly polls in the state.
