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West Bengal by-poll: BJP's candidate Priyanka Tibrewal says her fight in Bhabanipur to be against ' 1 particular person'
A win at Bhabanipur is crucial for Banerjee as the Constitution does not allow a non-member of a state legislature or Parliament to hold a ministerial position without getting elected, beyond six months.
The electoral fight in the Bhabanipur constituency of West Bengal will be against injustice and to save the people of the state, said Priyanka Tibrewal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the by-poll seat. Slamming chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Tibrewal also acknowledged that the fight will also be against "one particular person who remained silent during the violence". "My fight is not against any individual but against injustice. This fight is to save the people of West Bengal," news agency ANI quoted the BJP leader as saying.
This comes as Banerjee filed her nomination for the September 30 Bhabanipur assembly by-poll. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief who is also a resident of Bhabanipur, had won the seat twice in 2011 and 2016 but shifted to Nandigram, where the anti-farmland acquisition movement against the Left Front government had transformed her into a major political force. Though her party secured a landslide win in this year's assembly elections, she lost in Nandigram as her former protege and now BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari secured a win by more than 1,000 votes.
Now, a win at Bhabanipur is crucial for Banerjee as the Constitution does not allow a non-member of a state legislature or Parliament to hold a ministerial position without getting elected, beyond six months.
She will be contesting against Tibrewal who is a lawyer by profession and is one of the petitioners in the post-poll violence cases against the TMC government in the Calcutta high court. Exuding confidence, Tibrewal earlier said that she is "confident, people of Bhabanipur will vote for her and defeat Banerjee.
Tibrewal is currently the state vice president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the BJP's youth wing. She had joined the party in 2014.
Sovandeb Chattopadhyay vacated the seat to facilitate Banerjee’s return to the state assembly following her defeat in Nandigram.
Chattopadhyay had won the seat by a margin of more than 28.000 votes.
The votes for Bhabnipur will be counted on October 3.
