Crucial by-poll on Sep 30 to decide if Mamata stays as Bengal CM or not, in Bhawanipur, will not be cancelled, the Calcutta High Court said today, dismissing a petition challenging the bypoll. The court also stated that the bypoll will take place on Thursday as scheduled. The Election Commission’s claim of a “constitutional necessity” for holding a by-election to the Bhabanipur assembly seat in Kolkata was challenged in a PIL.
On September 13, the West Bengal government told the court that the chief secretary had just written to the Commission requesting that the by-election take place. The West Bengal chief secretary’s letter requesting the election commission to hold the bypoll was deemed “inappropriate” by the court today.
Following the retirement of TMC MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay to permit the party supremo’s election to the assembly, a bypoll to the Bhawanipur seat, which Ms Banerjee had previously represented in 2011 and 2016, was required. Mamata Banerjee will face Priyanka Tibrewal, a 41-year-old Calcutta High Court lawyer from the BJP.
Ms Banerjee, who became Chief Minister for the third time after the Trinamool Congress won a landslide victory in the state election, must win the Bhawanipur by-election as an MLA to keep her job. On October 3rd, the results will be released. In the March-April Assembly elections in Nandigram, Mamata Banerjee was defeated by BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari. The bypoll in Bhawanipur is considered crucial for the BJP, which is deeply engaged in deposing Mamata Banerjee after failing to do so in the state elections.