Mamata Banerjee likely to start campaigning for Bhabanipur by-poll from Sept 8

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to start her campaign for assembly by-polls from September 8, news agency ANI reported on Tuesday. Banerjee has been fielded by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party from south Kolkata's Bhabanipur from where she had won in the past.

Banerjee needs to get elected to the state assembly by November to continue as the chief minister. The TMC swept to power for the third time in West Bengal by winning 213 out of the 292 seats in the April-May assembly election. But Banerjee lost the poll from Nandigram to her protege-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by a narrow margin of 1,956 votes.

On Saturday, the Election Commission announced that by-elections to three assembly seats - Bhabanipur, Jangipur and Samserganj - in West Bengal will be held on September 30.

TMC leaders Jakir Hossain and Amirul Islam will be the party's candidates for Jangipur and Samserganj seats respectively.

The Congress is unlikely to field a candidate against Banerjee in the upcoming by-elections.

The counting of votes will take place on October 3.

The Bhabanipur seat was vacated by West Bengal's agriculture minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay in May, making way for the chief minister to contest from there.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost the assembly polls but emerged as the second-largest party with 77 seats.

Though polls and by-polls are to be held in seven seats in Bengal, the Election Commission has announced elections in only three seats. The TMC wants polls to be held on all the seven seats at the earliest, but the BJP has claimed that the situation is not conducive as the pandemic situation is not under control in any part of the state.