The Trinamool Congress on Friday announced its candidates for the byelection to four Assembly seats in West Bengal scheduled for July 10.
The constituencies going to the polls are Maniktala in Kolkata, which has been vacant for almost two years since the death of former Minister Sadhan Pande, Raiganj, and Ranaghat-Dakshin and Bagda Assembly constituencies that fell vacant after the sitting MLAs resigned to contest Lok Sabha polls.
Krishna Kalyani, who lost the Lok Sabha polls to BJP’s Kartik Chandra Paul, will be contesting from Raiganj, while Mukut Mani Adhikari, who lost from Ranaghat Lok Sabha seat to BJP’s Jagannath Sarkar, will be contesting from Ranaghat-Dakshin constituency. Mr. Kalyani and Mr. Adhikari won the 2021 Assembly polls as BJP candidates but later switched their allegiance to Trinamool.
The Bagda Assembly constituency fell vacant after MLA Biswajit Das, who had switched over to the Trinamool from BJP, resigned to contest Lok Sabha polls from Bongaon. However, he lost to BJP’s Shantanu Thakur. Trinamool Congress has now fielded Madhuparna Takur, a member of the Matua Thakurbari, in the Matua-dominated constituency of Badga.
For the Maniktala seat, it has picked Supti Pandey, wife of the late Trinamool MLA Sadhan Pandey.
The bypolls will not only be a show of strength for the Trinamool and BJP after the Lok Sabha polls but also a litmus test for the two former MLAs — Mr. Kalyani and Mr. Adhikari — who switched to Trinamool. Mr. Kalyani was also appointed the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of West Bengal Assembly.
The BJP, the Left parties and Congress are yet to announce candidates for the bypolls.
The Trinamool won 29 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, restricting the BJP to 12 seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.
