27 companies of Central Force for bypolls in 4 seats

Kolkata: The Election Commission is deploying 27 companies of Central Forces for smooth conduction of by-election-related duties in Bengal. These 27 companies which will be inducted by October 13 will be undertaking route march in the four constituencies where the bypolls are going to be held on October 30.

As per sources in the Commission, 8 companies will be CRPF, 9 companies will be BSF, 5 companies CISF and another 5 will be SSB. By elections will be held at Dinhata in north Bengal's Cooch Behar district, Santipur in Nadia district, Khardah in North 24-Parganas and Gosaba in South 24-Parganas,

"The Commission will be gradually deploying more Central Forces before the bypolls," a senior official in the Commission said.

The Dinhata seat fell vacant after the local BJP Lok Sabha member Nisith Pramanik, who contested the Assembly elections and won by a slender margin of 57 votes did not take oath to remain in the Lok Sabha.

He was appointed Union minister of state for home affairs in July.

Udayan Guha is the Trinamool Congress nominee for Dinhata while BJP has fielded Ashok Mondal.

Similar is the case for Nadia's Santipur with the local BJP Lok Sabha member, Jagannath Sarkar, opting to remain in Parliament after winning the state polls.

Trinamool's Brajakishore Goswami, a member of the Vaishnav community is pitted against Niranjan Biswas of BJP.

The Khardah seat fell vacant because TMC's Kajal Sinha, who won it, died of Covid-19 before the results were announced on May 2.

The TMC has fielded Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who won the Bhabanipur seat but resigned to pave the way for Mamata Banerjee to contest from that seat and continue as Chief Minister. At Gosaba in South 24-Parganas, Trinamool veteran Jayanta Naskar who represented the seat twice since 2011 died after his third victory.

The TMC has fielded Subrata Mondal, a local leader, against the BJP's Palash Rana.