TMC’s Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who left Bhabanipur seat for Mamata, to contest in October 30 bypoll
Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay had won from Bhabanipur seat when the West Bengal Assembly polls were announced on May 2, but decided to vacate it later for TMC chief Mamata Banerjee to contest.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and cabinet minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay has been named as the party’s candidate in the upcoming bypoll in four constituencies in West Bengal, scheduled for October 30. He will be contesting for the Khardaha seat. Notably, Chattopadhyay vacated his seat in Kolkata’s Bhabanipur for TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to contest after she lost the Nandigram seat to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari.
The party on Sunday, hours after Mamata sealed a record win in Bhabanipur for the third time and retained her CM’s post, announced the names of its four candidates for the bypolls in Dinhata, Santipur, and Gosaba, besides Khardaha.
Udayan Guha will contest for the Dinhata constituency, Brajakishore Goswami will represent the TMC in Santipur, and Subrata Mondal will fight for the Gosaba seat.
The Election Commission (EC) on Sunday declared Mamata as the winner of the Bhabanipur bypolls by 58,835 votes over her closest rival from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Priyanka Tibrewal.
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According to data on the EC’s website, Mamata won a total of 85,263 votes, while Tibrewal and CPI(M)’s Shrijeeb Biswas won 26,428 and 4,226 votes, respectively.
Earlier in the day, TMC supporters had assembled outside Mamata’s home in south Kolkata’s Kalighat area to celebrate. However, the chief minister urged them to celebrate by helping those affected in the flood-hit districts of West Bengal. She added that she won in every ward of Bhabanipur even, and the victory served as a befitting reply to the conspiracy created against her in Nandigram.
Mamata had lost the Nandigram seat to Adhikari by 1,946 votes. Before joining BJP in 2021, Suvendu had won Nandigram as a TMC candidate.
In May when Chattopadhyay submitted his resignation as an MLA from Bhabanipur to state assembly speaker Biman Banerjee, he said his decision was made “under no pressure” and that it was a move as a “sincere workers of the TMC.”
“Her (Mamata’s) role in state and national politics is more important right now,” he had said.
Besides Bhabanipur, TMC registered wins in Samserganj and Jangipur. TMC candidate Jakir Hossain secured a total of 1,36,444 votes as opposed to 43, 964 received by BJP’s Sujit Das in Jangipur. In Samserganj, TMC’s Amirul Islam defeated Congress’ Zaidur Rahaman by 26,379 votes.
The bypolls in these districts of Bengal are necessary after the winning candidates either died due to coronavirus disease (Covid-19) or resigned from the state assembly.
The Khardaha and Gosaba seats fell vacant after TMC’s winning candidates Kajal Sinha and Jayanta Naskar died of Covid-19. The seats in Santipur and Dinhata fell vacant after BJP’s winning candidates Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar decided to resign from the state assembly.
