Will contest against Mamata Banerjee from Bhawanipore if party decides: BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari

West Bengal Leader of Opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Suvendu Adhikari has said that if his party decides, he will contest against Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee from Bhawanipore Assembly constituency in the byelections. However, the BJP has not yet fielded a candidate against Banerjee yet, where byelections have been announced by the Election Commission, for September 30.

It is not yet clear whether BJP won’t field a candidate or whether they will try to stop the bypolls through legal steps. The party’s state chief Dilip Ghosh had stated earlier that the BJP might consider taking legal steps to stop the election. Later though, he said the party will give Mamata Banerjee a tough fight in Bhawanipore bypolls.

Adhikari won against Banerjee in the 2021 Assembly polls from the Nandigram Assembly constituency, by a margin of less than 2,000 votes. Mamata Banerjee however, has contested the results, legally, and the case is now on. Banerjee had sworn-in as the state’s chief minister on May 5 and as per the law, she has to win from a seat within six months.

Meanwhile, Trinamool has announced the names of candidates from Bhawanipore, Samsergunj and Jangipur – Mamata Banerjee, Amirul Islam and Zakir Hussain. Islam and Hussain were the party’s candidates as announced in the Assembly polls. However, the death of other candidates had led to the postponement of these elections.