A team of delegates from Trinamool Congress met the officials of the Election Commission (EC) in New Delhi on Thursday with a request to hold bypolls at the earliest for the seven vacant assembly seats in West Bengal. Recently, Dinhata and Santipur assembly seats fell vacant after BJP leaders Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar resigned as MLAs after winning to retain their Parliament memberships.
Similarly, elections could not be held in Samserganj and Jangipur seats in Murshidabad due to the death of candidates during the recent assembly polls in the state. The Kharda seat also fell vacant in North 24-Parganas district after TMC candidate Kajal Sinha passed away before he could celebrate his victory.
The Gosaba seat also fell vacant after the TMC candidate, Jayanta Naskar, who won the elections, succumbed to Covid-19 in June this year.
Addressing a press conference, TMC MP Saugata Roy said, “Our meeting with the Election Commission (EC) was very cordial and the poll body said their purpose is to hold elections and not to withhold the polling process. We told them that the situation is conducive to hold the polls as the number of Covid-19 cases has declined in the state. We have also given them Covid-19 statistics in all the seven constituencies where bypolls are pending. The EC said they will consider our matter and we are hopeful for a fair response from the EC.”
Some of the TMC MPs who met the EC included Sougata Roy, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Jawhar Sircar, Sajda Ahmed, and Mahua Moitra. The TMC MPs also submitted a written reply to EC’s earlier letter seeking opinion of the parties on holding the bye-elections in West Bengal.
Mohua Moitra, who was also part of the delegates, reportedly said the EC may hold the bye-elections in a phased manner (in three to four phases) in seven constituencies.
Sukhendu Sekhar Ray expressed his gratitude to EC for going through the pointers the delegates had mentioned in their memorandum for the bypolls.
On May 21, TMC MLA from Bhawanipur constituency Sovandeb Chattopadhyay resigned from the post to make way for Mamata Banerjee.
According to the Indian Constitution, Banerjee, who lost her Nandigram seat this year, can run the state as a chief minister but she will have to get elected in the next six months to retain her post. In such a case, bypolls in six vacant assembly seats must be conducted by November 5, 2021.
Responding to TMC’s memorandum to EC for holding the bypolls at the earliest, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “No one is against the bypoll but the question is why TMC is not holding the municipality elections for the last couple of years. They want a bypoll on time and we want an immediate announcement of municipal polling in West Bengal. Situation is grim in West Bengal because of deteriorating law and order. Post-poll violence is at its peak and the police are doing nothing.”
Ghosh said, “Just to remain in power, Mamata Banerjee wants bypolls at the earliest. We don’t want an election now.”
However, CPI-M leader Sujan Chakraborty supported timely completion of bypolls but said the state government should also announce the dates of pending municipal polls in the state.
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