After making a clean sweep in the by-elections, the Trinamool Congress on Sunday announced the names of its four candidates for the upcoming bypolls in four Assembly seats in West Bengal. Among them are Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, who had vacated Bhabanipur seat for party chief Mamata Banerjee.
The announcement was made by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee just after winning from Bhabanipur with a record margin of over 58,000 votes.
“On this auspicious day, I would like to announce the names of my candidates who will contest the bypolls. Our party leader Udayan Guha will contest from Dinhata seat. Sovandeb Chattopadhyay will contest from Khardaha (in North 24 Parganas). Brajakishore Goswami will contest from Santipur seat,” said Banerjee.
Later, the party announced the candidature of Subrata Mondal will contest from Gosaba constituency in South 24 Parganas district.
Assembly bypolls to four seats — Dinhata, Santipur, Khardaha, and Gosaba — will be held on October 30, and counting of votes will take place on November 2.
Bypolls to Dinhata and Santipur seats are being held as two sitting BJP MPs — Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar — vacated the respective seats after winning them in the Assembly polls earlier this year.
Bypolls to Khardaha and Gosaba are being held following the death of TMC MLAs.
After the announcement, TMC leader Udayan Guha said, “I am happy that my name has been announced. I thank our leader Mamata Banerjee for her victory in Bhabanipur. We will ensure that this time the party wins Dinhata seat.”
In the Assembly polls, Guha had lost to BJP MP Nisith Pramanik by 57 votes.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee’s thumping victory made her party leaders claim that she has now “emerged as the face of anti-BJP force” in the country.
Senior TMC leader and state minister Firhad Hakim, who was one of the lieutenants of Mamata Banerjee for Bhabanipur bypoll, said, “With this victory, people are saying that Mamata Banerjee now cannot be contained in Bengal (politics). She has emerged as the face of anti-BJP force in the country. Only she can lead a united front against the BJP… Now, people have given a call for a march to Delhi just like the way Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had said Delhi Chalo.”
After the party’s landslide victory against the BJP in state Assembly polls earlier this year, Banerjee emerged as a challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, her defeat in Nandigram against former aide Suvendu Adhikari had left a sour note.
TMC MLA Madan Mitra also echoed Hakim. “People are now asking where are the jet planes and choppers. Where are ED and CBI? Who is going to Delhi now? It is Mamata Banerjee. The train has left for Delhi. Now, it is just a matter of time.”
TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said, “We knew from the beginning that she would win by a huge margin. People of Bhabanipur have turned the saviour of Bengal into the saviour of the country.”
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