TMC to meet poll body today as Mamata awaits bypolls to continue as CM

Trinamool leaders had earlier met the Election Commission in Delhi over the matter, but the poll panel is yet to make any commitment on the election.

A team of Trinamool Congress functionaries will meet the chief electoral officer of West Bengal on Friday to request him to hold by-elections to seven assembly seats in the state. One of the seats awaiting bypolls is the Bhabanipur constituency from where chief minister Mamata Banerjee will contest to retain her chief minister’s post. She had lost the tightly fought Nandigram seat to her aide-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikary.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. (ANI)

Senior party leader and education minister Partha Chatterjee said on Thursday the team will meet the CEO “tomorrow and urge him to expedite the process of holding by-polls to five assembly seats and fresh elections to two others".

A traditional Trinamool seat ever since 2011 when Banerjee stormed to power overthrowing the 34-year-old Left Front government, the Bhabanipur seat was won by the chief minister’s aide Sovandeb Chattpadhyay in the last election held in May. He will vacate the seat for the by-election to make way for Banerjee as the latter has to get elected within six months (November) of taking over as the chief minister.

The Trinamool leadership had earlier met the Election Commission in Delhi over the matter, but the poll panel is yet to make any commitment on the election, mainly citing the pandemic situation. The ruling camp has argued that if an eight-phase election could be held amid the peak of the second wave of the coronavirus disease, there was no reason to delay the bypolls at a time when there has been a significant fall in fresh cases in the state. Adhikari has been saying that if trains cannot run due to the pandemic, elections too should be postponed.

The poll body is reportedly making arrangements to hold the byelections in the state, but no date has been finalised yet. Banerjee and her party have often accused the commission of being partial towards the saffron camp.