Even as the heat and dust of the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal is yet to settle down, political parties are gearing up for yet another acid test, with bye-elections for 10 Assembly constituencies slated to be held this year.
Having won big in the Lok Sabha elections, the ruling Trinamool Congress has already set a target of bagging all 10 Assembly constituencies.
On the other hand, BJP sources say the party is equally determined to retain those constituencies where its candidates got elected in the 2021 Assembly polls.
Of the 10 constituencies where bypolls will be conducted this year, the Trinamool Congress candidates got elected from six and the BJP from four.
Five Trinamool Congress legislators, namely Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia from Sitai in Cooch Behar District, Arup Chakraborty from Taldangra in Bankura District, June Maliah from Medinipur in West Midnapore District, Partha Bhowmick from Naihati and Haji Nurul Islam from Haroa both in North 24 Parganas District have got elected to the Lok Sabha.
So they will now have to resign as MLAs and that will necessitate bye-elections for these five Assembly constituencies.
On the other hand, the bypoll for Maniktala Assembly constituency in Kolkata has been necessitated because of the demise of the erstwhile Trinamool Congress legislator from there Sadhan Pande, who got elected for the third-consecutive term in 2021.
Similarly, bye-elections will have to be conducted at Madarihat in Alipurduar District, as the elected BJP legislator from there Manoj Tigga this time successfully contested from the Alipurduar Lok Sabha seat and hence he will also have to resign as the MLA from Madarihat.
However, the reason for bye-election for three other constituencies namely Bagda from North 24 Parganas District, Ranaghat in Nadia District and Raiganj in North Dinajpur District is most interesting.
The erstwhile BJP legislators from these three Assembly constituencies namely Biswajit Das from Bagda, Dr Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat and Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, all of whom got elected in 2021, had to resign as Assembly members before the Lok Sabha polls this year, since they had contested as Trinamool Congress candidates.
Although all three of them got defeated this time, by-polls need to be conducted at the three Assembly constituencies of Bagda, Ranaghat and Raiganj because the chairs of the MLAs from there are currently vacant because of their resignations
Now it is to be seen whether Trinamool Congress nominates Das, Adhikari and Kalyani from the respective Assembly constituencies from where they got elected in 2021 but as BJP candidates.
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