Mamata forms panel to select candidate

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee has constituted a 4-member core committee to discuss the candidature for the Manicktala Assembly constituency, the by-election to which will take place on July 10.

Banerjee on Monday formed the core committee comprising Trinamool Congress MLA Paresh Pal, city’s Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh, Member Mayor-in-council (MMIC) Swapan Samaddar and senior party leader Kunal Ghosh. The core committee may give the party supremo advice on who could be the party’s candidate for Manicktala bypoll.

According to sources, party supremo Banerjee may hold a meeting on Tuesday with all four members of the core committee and also with the councillors from those wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) that fall under the Manicktala assembly constituency. It was learnt from the sources that Banerjee may give the final nod on who will become the candidate for Manicktala from Tuesday’s meeting. Speculations are going around that Shreya Pande, daughter of Sadhan Pande, may be a strong contender and one of the front runners to become a candidate for the ruling party in Manicktala. The Maniktala Assembly seat had no MLAs for over two years after the death of former consumer affairs minister Sadhan Pande in February 2022 due to a pending petition in the Supreme Court. It was learnt that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had submitted a tentative schedule to the SC for holding the bypoll.