Kolkata: By-elections to three Assembly seats in West Bengal — Kaliaganj in North Dinajpur, Kharagpur Sadar in West Midnapore and Karimpur in Nadia district — will be held on November 25.
The Kaliaganj seat fell vacant following the death of sitting Congress MLA Pramatha Nath Ray on May 31, while bypolls to the Kharagpur Sadar and Karimpur seats were necessitated after sitting BJP MLA Dilip Ghosh and TMC’s Mahua Moitra were elected to the Lok Sabha from Midnapore and Krishnnanagar, respectively.
The last date of filing nomination papers for the elections is November 6, while counting will be held on November 28. The Election Commission has decided to use EVMs and VVPATs at all the polling stations.
The Congress and Left Front have decided to go for a seat-sharing arrangement in the upcoming elections.
State Congress president Somendra Nath Mitra told News18, “Recently, we held a meeting with party president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi and got a green signal for a seat adjustment with the Left Front.”
He said, “We felt this is necessary to stop the Trinamool Congress (BJP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from making further damage. As of now, it has been decided the Congress would contest from the Kaliaganj and Kharagpur seats, while the Left Front would field its candidate from Karimpur.”
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, a tie-up between the two parties had failed to materialise as the leadership failed to reach an understanding over a few seats in the state.
While the Congress finally managed to win two seats, the Left Front that ruled had the state for 34 years failed to open its account. “This time, we are hopeful that there will not be any misunderstanding. We are confident of winning from all the three seats,” Mitra added.
Comments
0 comment