BJP announces candidates for Asansol, Ballygunge bypolls in Bengal

The party has fielded sitting MLA Agnimitra Paul for Asansol Lok Sabha bypoll who will contest against TMC candidate Shatrugan Sinha and CPM candidate Partha Mukherjee. For Ballygunge Assembly bypoll, the BJP has fielded Keya Ghosh who will contest against TMC candidate and former Union minister Babul Supriyo and CPM candidate Saira Shah Halim.

In the 2021 Assembly polls, Agnimitra Paul had defeated actor and TMC candidate Sayani Ghosh from Asansol Dakshin constituency.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) last Sunday announced Shatrughan Sinha as her party’s candidate for the Asansol Lok Sabha bypoll and former Union minister Babul Supriyo as the nominee for the Ballygunge Assembly bye-election. While Supriyo quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and joined the TMC in September last year, Sinha joined the party with the announcement of his candidature.

Bye-elections to both the seats will be held on April 12. The Asansol seat fell vacant after Supriyo resigned as the BJP Member of Parliament from the seat from where he had won the election in 2014 and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He has been made the TMC candidate from the Ballygunge Assembly constituency in Kolkata, which fell vacant after the demise of former state minister and veteran party leader Subrata Mukherjee in November last year.