Trinamool announces candidates for Assembly by-elections in 4 seats
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Sunday announced party nominees for by-elections at Dinhata, Santipur, Khardaha and Gosaba to be held on October 30. Counting of votes will be held on November 3.
Senior Trinamool Congress leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who is the state Agriculture minister at present, is the party's nominee from Khardah in North 24-Parganas.
Udayan Guha, who got defeated by just 46 votes at Cooch Behar's Dinhata in the Assembly polls held in March-April, would be again fighting with the party's ticket from the constituency.
Guha, son of the Agriculture minister in Left regime Kamal Guha, was elected as a Forward Bloc MLA in 2011. He later joined Trinamool Congress and again got elected in 2016 on TMC's ticket. But got defeated in 2021 against BJP's Nisith Pramanik by just 46 votes. Giving a masterstroke, Banerjee has announced the name of Brajakishore Goswami hailing from the famous Baishnab family as the party's candidate of Santipur in the bypoll. This is the first time when the 32-year-old youth leader has got the opportunity to contest as an MLA candidate. This comes when TMC had won only in one bypoll from Santipur. Subrata Mondal is the party's nominee from
Gosaba Assembly constituency in the bypoll. The bypoll at Khardah in North 24-Parganas is going to be held as the Assembly segment had witnessed the tragic death of Trinamool Congress nominee Kajal Sinha due to Covid on April 25, which is just three days after the polls in the Assembly segment on April 22.
The by-elections in Cooch Behar's Dinhata and Nadia's Santipur Assembly constituencies are going to be held
as BJP MPs Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar respectively had refused to continue as MLA despite winning the elections.
The bypolls is scheduled at South 24-Parganas' Gosaba due to the death of TMC's MLA Jayanta Naskar. One of the senior leaders of Trinamool Congress Sovan Chatterjee had resigned as an MLA from Bhabanipur that resulted in a bypoll in which Banerjee contested as the party's nominee and won by 58,835 votes.
The state finance minister Amit Mitra had won from Khardah in 2011 and 2016 Assembly polls. Chatterjee said: "I have been working at the Assembly segment for the past couple of months and I am confident of winning as there is a lot of scope to work here".
Confident of his win, Goswami said: "I would like to express my gratitude to the party supremo for giving me the opportunity. I would give my best for the development of Santinipur".
