Bypolls in 3 Bengal seats today, key poll for Mamata Banerjee to retain top post

Byelections are being held in three Assembly seats of West Bengal, including the high-profile Bhawanipore, where Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is contesting to retain the post of the West Bengal chief minister. Other than Bhawanipore, byelections are also being held in Shamsergunj and Jangipur in the Murshidabad district.

Banerjee had lost to Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram in the 2021 Assembly polls in April-May by a close margin, the results of which she has contested, and the matter is now being fought in court. The MLA elected from Bhawanipore was Trinamool’s Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who resigned to vacate the seat for her. The chief minister has to be elected from a seat within six months of being sworn-in, according to the Constitution.

Polling started at 7 am on Thursday, and counting will be done on October 3. The BJP has fielded Priyanka Tibrewal, a Calcutta High Court lawyer, from the Bhawanipore seat. The CPM has fielded Srijeeb Biswas, also a lawyer. Banerjee had won twice from this seat – in 2011 and 2016.

There is a huge contingent of police force in the area, with prohibitory order around 200 metres of polling booths for the past two days to prevent any violence from taking place.