The Trinamool Congress on Thursday requested the Election Commission (EC) to hold bypolls at the earliest for the seven vacant assembly seats in West Bengal.
“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,” TMC MP Saugata Roy said addressing a press conference after meeting the EC officials with a party delegation.
The TMC’s urgency for the bypolls has to do with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who lost her Nandigram seat in May this year. To continue to run the state as a Chief Minister she will have to get elected within six months to retain her post. In such a case, bypolls in the vacant Assembly seats must be conducted by November 5, 2021. TMC MLA from Bhawanipur constituency Sovandeb Chattopadhyay had on May 21 this year vacated his seat to make way for Banerjee.
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.