NEW DELHI: With the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal repeatedly petitioning the Election Commission to conduct early bypolls in seven assembly constituencies of the state in order to get chief minister Mamata Banerjee elected as an MLA before November 5, the state BJP has taken a dig at the ruling party.
West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Wednesday alleged that Mamata Banerjee was in a hurry for holding of assembly bypolls as she wanted to cling on to the chair.
Mamata Banerjee had contested the state assembly election held earlier this year from Nandigram. While her TMC won with an impressive majority, she lost her seat to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari.
Despite the defeat, Mamata took oath as the state chief minister on May 5. She has to get elected as an MLA within six months - before November 5.
TMC MLA from Bhawanipore, Sobhondeb Chattopadhyay, has vacated the seat for Mamata. Bhawanipore was Mamata’s traditional assembly seat before she switched over to Nandigram this year. Besides Bhawanipore, the Election Commission is supposed to conduct bypolls on six other seats.
In this backdrop, Dilip Ghosh told mediapersons in Kolkata that when the assembly election was underway in March-April this year, Mamata had urged the chief election commissioner to halt it midway fearing spread of COVID-19 infection across the state.
"So why is the chief minister in such a hurry asking the CEC's office to hold the bypolls now? At the same time, why are elections to the 118-odd municipalities of the state not being held till now? People residing in areas under these municipalities are facing civic problems as there are no councillors," he said.
Municipal polls are held by the state election commission.
"We have given our opinion on this to the chief electoral officer in Kolkata," Ghosh said.
On the suicide attempt by five teachers on Tuesday, Ghosh said "There is complete anarchy in education sphere in the state.
Five women contractual teachers of primary schools allegedly consumed poison on Tuesday while demonstrating before Bikash Bhavan, the West Bengal education department headquarters, seeking immediate fulfilment of their job-related demands.
"It is unfortunate that those who impart education to children are being forced to take such drastic steps. They are feeling deprived," the BJP leader said.
Ghosh said people living in villages in the state are not getting COVID vaccines and alleged that most of the vaccination are concentrated in the city.
The saffron party announced the launch of its programme to distribute ration bags among the people with pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Dilip Ghosh printed on them.
