On Thursday, a Trinamool Congress delegation met Election Commission (EC) officials in New Delhi with a request to hold bypolls at the earliest for the seven vacant assembly seats in West Bengal.
The Dinhata and Santipur assembly seats fell vacant after BJP leaders Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar resigned as MLAs 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 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.
“Our meeting with the Election Commission (EC) was very cordial and the poll body said their purpose is to hold elections and not 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 coronavirus 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,” said TMC MP Saugata Roy in a press conference.
The party in a memorandum to the EC said that coronavirus cases in the state have come down to 830 from 70,000 cases and time was right for the polls. The delegation also requested that the bypolls not be held during the festival season beginning in a couple of months.
TMC MPs who met the EC included Mr. Roy, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Jawhar Sircar, Sajda Ahmed, and Mahua Moitra.
The EC in an earlier letter had sought the opinion of the parties on holding the by-elections in West Bengal.
Ms. Moitra also suggested that the EC may hold the by-elections in a phased manner (in three to four phases) in seven constituencies.
On May 21, TMC MLA from Bhawanipur constituency Sovandeb Chattopadhyay resigned from the post to make way for Mamata Banerjee.
According to the Constitution, Ms. 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.
