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BJP declares by-poll candidates to 4 assembly seats in West Bengal
The by-polls are scheduled to be held on July 10, with the final date to declare candidacy on June 21 and final date to withdraw on June 26
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday declared the names of four candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, reported PTI. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) had already announced its candidates a few days ago.
Kalyan Chaubey, who will be contesting from the Maniktala constituency in Kolkata, has previous experience, while the other three candidates are fresh faces. In the 2021 assembly elections, TMC's Sadhan Pandey defeated Chaubey, but following Pandey's demise, the seat became vacant.
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According to PTI, Manoj Kumar Biswas, representing the Matua community, will contest from the Ranaghat Dakshin (SC) seat in Nadia district. Binay Kumar Biswas, also from the Matua community, will contest from the Bagda (SC) seat. Both constituencies have a sizeable number of voters from the Matua community.
Manas Kumar Ghosh will be contesting on a BJP ticket from Raiganj in the Uttar Dinajpur district.
The TMC's candidates for the assembly elections are Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat Dakshin (SC), Supti Pandey from Maniktala and Madhuparna Thakur from Bagda (SC).
From one party to another
There appears to be substantial party crossover among the declared candidates from both the TMC and BJP. According to PTI, Kalyani, who won a BJP ticket in the 2021 by-polls from Raiganj, switched to the TMC during this year's Lok Sabha polls but did not succeed. Adhikari also joined TMC this year and faced defeat in the Lok Sabha elections from Ranaghat.
Biswajit Das, who contested the 2021 assembly polls from Bagda on a BJP ticket and won, later switched to the TMC and contested the Lok Sabha elections from Bongaon unsuccessfully. The assembly by-polls were necessitated in the Bagda seat because he had resigned.
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According to the Election Commission of India, by-elections to fill vacancies in 13 assembly constituencies in seven states will be held on July 10 and the counting of the votes will take place on July 13.
The last date to file nominations is June 21 and candidates can withdraw their candidature till June 26.
(with inputs from PTI)
