traineesubeditor@tribuneindia.com
Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service
Kolkata, May 25
The TMC and the BJP will have yet another showdown in West Bengal in the next six months when by-elections are held for two Assembly seats in the state.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, who has won from the Medinipur Lok Sabha constituency, is all set to resign from his Kharagpur Sadar Assembly seat.
Similarly, TMC’s Mahua Maitra, who has won from the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha constituency, is slated to submit her resignation from the Karimpur Assembly seat, which she currently holds.
“According to the rules, any vacancy in the Assembly will have to be filled within six months,” said Aurobindo Panchadhyai, joint secretary, West Bengal Assembly.
Several sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal with varying degrees of success.
Some of these MLAs, who contested the Lok Sabha elections from a party different than what they had represented in the Assembly, resigned from the MLA’s position.
By-elections were held in six such Assembly constituencies and the BJP fared better than the TMC. It wrested one seat each from the TMC and the CPI(M).
Bhatpara was originally won by TMC’s Arjun Singh. Arjun Singh switched to the BJP before the Lok Sabha elections and won from the Barrackpur Lok Sabha seat. Arjun Singh’s son, Pawan Kumar Singh, has won the Bhatpara Assembly seat on a BJP ticket.
Habibpur was originally won by CPI(M)’s Khagen Murmu. Murmu turned saffron near the Lok Sabha elections and successfully contested from the Malda (North) constituency on a BJP ticket. The Habibpur Assembly constituency vacated by him has also been won by BJP’s Joyel Murmu.
The Darjeeling Assembly seat, vacated by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) MLA Amar Singh Rai, who unsuccessfully contested the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency on a TMC ticket, has now been won by BJP’s Neeraj Zimba.
The TMC wrested the Islampur Assembly seat from the Congress as the sitting Congress MLA Kanaialal Agarwal fought from the Raiganj Lok Sabha seat on a TMC ticket. He lost to BJP’s Debasree Chaudhuri. Abdul K Chowdhary of the TMC has become the new MLA from Islampur.
TMC’s Mamtaz Begum wrested the Nowda Assembly seat from the Congress. The incumbent Congress MLA Abu Taher joined the TMC and won from the Murshidabad Lok Sabha seat.
Congress MLA from Kandi, Apurba Sarkar, also resigned from the Assembly and lost to Congress party’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat. The Congress, however, retained the Kamdi seat as its candidate SA Khan defeated TMC’s Gautam Roy by over 21,000 votes.
Assembly by-elections took place in two more constituencies because of the death of the sitting MLAs. The bypoll results were announced on Friday along with the Lok Sabha results.
The BJP emerged victorious in murdered TMC MLA Satyajit Biswas’s constituency Krishanganj.
The TMC retained its seat in Uluberia East, where a vacancy was created due to the death of the incumbent Haidar A Safwi.