Bypolls in 4 Assembly seats in Bengal to be held on July 10

Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced the dates for by-elections in four Assembly constituencies in Bengal — Ranaghat South in Nadia, Bagda in North 24-Parganas, Maniktala in Kolkata, and Raiganj in North Dinajpur. These by-elections are scheduled for July 10, with the results to be declared on July 13.

As notified by the poll watchdog, the last date for filing of nominations in these four seats is June 21 and the last date for nomination withdrawal is June 26.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, Krishna Kalyani won from Raiganj on BJP’s ticket. He later joined Trinamool and was fielded from the Raiganj parliamentary constituency (PC) by TMC. Hence, Kalyani had to resign from his MLA post, making by-elections in Raiganj imminent.

In Ranaghat South, Mukutmani Adhikari had won in BJP’s ticket in the 2021 state polls but later defected to TMC and contested from Ranaghat South Lok Sabha seat. He too had to tender his resignation as MLA.

Biswajit Das won from Bagda on BJP’s ticket in 2021 and later he joined TMC. He was fielded by Trinamool from the Bongaon PC, leading to the Bagda Assembly seat falling vacant.

Veteran TMC leader Sadhan Pande won from Maniktala Assembly constituency in the 2021 Assembly elections.

He died in February 2022. However, due to some legal issues, by-elections could not be conducted in Maniktala. However, recently the legal hurdles were cleared paving the way for a by-election in Maniktala.

Moreover, several more seats in the state have become vacant as the MLAs contested in the Lok Sabha polls.

TMC’s MLA from Midnapore June Malia contested in the Lok Sabha elections and won from the Midnapore Parliamentary constituency.

Jagadish Chandra Basunia of TMC won from Cooch Behar in the Lok Sabha elections. Hence. his Sital assembly seat where he was the MLA became vacant.

BJP’s Manoj Tigga, an MLA from Madarihat won the Alipurduar Lok Sabha seat while Arup Chakraborty of TMC, an MLA from Taldangra, won Bankura PC. Partha Bhowmick, a TMC MLA from Naihati won from Barrackpore PC.

Incidentally, June Malia, Arup Chakraborty, Jagadish Chandra Basunia and Partha Bhowmick resigned as MLA on Monday.