West Bengal: Partha Chatterjee & team TMC give chief electoral officer bypoll ‘reminder’

KOLKATA: A Trinamool Congress delegation led by the party’s general secretary Partha Chatterjee met chief electoral officer of Bengal Aariz Aftab on Friday, reiterating the demand for by-elections to seven assembly seats.
Chatterjee, who is the state parliamentary affairs minister, said three months had gone by since the poll results and Trinamool MPs had already met the Election Commission on the issue in mid-July, but there was still no indication of when the bypolls might be held.
Hence, they decided to give the CEO “a reminder”.
He said the EC had conducted the eight-phase assembly polls when Bengal’s Covid positivity rate was at a 33% high. Now, the rate is at a low of 1.5% and it is the right time to hold bypolls, he added.
The delegation included panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee, MoS (Health) Chandrima Bhattacharya, social welfare minister Sashi Panja and disaster relief minister Javed Ahmed Khan.
Chatterjee maintained that although the CEO had hinted that the polling process had been initiated, the EC seemed reluctant to hold the bypolls.
He claimed attempts “from some quarters” to delay the bypolls and blamed the leader of the opposition too. He said those who spoke of protecting democracy were now reluctant to allow polling and the EC must not let that happen.
In mid-July, Aftab’s office had directed district election officers to do a first round of checking on EVMs and VVPAT machines.
The process started in North and South 24 Parganas, Kolkata South, Cooch Behar and Nadia. However, polls were not held in Murshidabad’s Jangipur and Samserganj at the last moment because two candidates died.
Now, the EVMs in Murshidabad need to be checked, an official said.
By-election is due in Bhowanipore, from where CM Mamata Banerjee needs to win by November 5 before the six-month deadline expires. The seat was contested and won by state agriculture minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay who stepped down to facilitate Banerjee’s re-election.
Junior Union ministers Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar gave up their Dinhata and Shantipur assembly constituencies, respectively, to remain MPs.
Hence, polls are also due in these two seats. Gosaba MLA Jayanta Naskar died after winning his seat while Khardah MLA Kajal Sinha died before the poll results were out.