BJP slams WB govt's 'hypocrisy' on COVID-19 as TMC urges EC to conduct bypolls to 7 seats

West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Friday questioned the West Bengal government's purported hypocritical stance on the COVID-19 situation in the state. This came after a TMC delegation comprising TMC MPs Saugata Roy, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Mahua Moitra, Jawhar Sircar and Sajda Ahmed met the Election Commission of India on August 26. Maintaining that the number of COVID-19 cases has declined in the state, they urged the EC to conduct a by-election to 7 Assembly constituencies. 

To support their case, they even provided novel coronavirus statistics for the specific constituencies where the bypolls are pending. However, Ghosh pointed out that the state government has not yet allowed schools to reopen, resumption of local train services and gathering of more than 50 persons at a spot. In such a scenario, he lashed out at the Mamata Banerjee-led government for seeking a concession for elections. 

Mamata Banerjee racing against time

At present, only Mamata Banerjee and WB Finance Minister Amit Mitra are the two non-MLAs in the WB Council of Ministers. While Mitra has reportedly expressed a desire to step down owing to ill-health, the TMC supremo has to get elected within a period of 6 months i.e by November 4 to continue as the Chief Minister. She has already moved the Calcutta High Court challenging Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari's victory in Nandigram despite the fact that Bhawanipore MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay has resigned to pave way for her election.

The polls were countermanded in Jangipur and Samserganj following the death of RSP's Pradip Nandi and Congress' Rezaul Haque respectively due to COVID-19. Two other seats are lying vacant as Gosaba MLA Jayanta Naskar and Khardaha MLA Kajal Sinha passed away after winning the 2021 Assembly polls. The other vacancies were created when the winning BJP candidates from Dinhata and Santipur- Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar chose to retain their Lok Sabha seats. 

Even as the status of by-polls is uncertain, the West Bengal Assembly cleared a resolution on July 6 to form a Legislative Council with 195 members voting in favour of the same. Coming down heavily on the West Bengal government, BJP opined that the creation of a Legislative Council was a ploy to facilitate the backdoor entry of TMC leaders rejected by the people. Meanwhile, Congress peddled a conspiracy theory alleging that Tirath Singh Rawat was made to step down as the Uttarakhand CM to ensure that by-elections are not held in WB thereby forcing the TMC supremo to resign.