Kolkata: The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation will visit Election Commission of India (ECI) on July 15 and would ask them to hold the bypolls on its scheduled time and will also urge to give seven days for campaigning before the polls.
TMC spokesperson and state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said that the time is conducive to hold the bypolls as the number of active COVID-19 patients in West Bengal are less.
“Since the Covid positivity rate is low so we can hold the polls or else if the situation worsens again then it will be further delayed,” said Ghosh.
It can be recalled that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on June 23 also demanded the bypoll to take place on time and had also slammed ECI saying that they won’t be holding bypolls till Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives affirmative nudge.
Opposing the move, Leader of opposition in West Bengal Legislative Assembly Suvendu Adhikari said that till everyone in West Bengal is completely vaccinated, holding the polls should not be encouraged.
Notably, though the matter is subjudice, Mamata Banerjee had lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram and if the bypoll is not conducted within six months of declaration of the results, then Mamata Banerjee will have to step down from her post. Earlier this month, BJP West Bengal vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said the ECI should not hold the polls now and Mamata Banerjee after resigning should make way for someone else from TMC to be the new Chief Minister of the state.
It is pertinent to say that election of Murshidabad’s Jangipur and Samshergunj was cancelled earlier due to the death of the candidates by being affected by Covid.
Later, due to the second wave of Covid along with two Assembly seats, five more Assembly seats were attached. Dinhata, Khardaha, Shantipur, Gosaba and Bhawanipore seat will now go for bypolls.
Notably, despite winning the Bhawanipore seat, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay vacated the seat for TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.