BJP to name Mamata Banerjee's contender from Bhabanipur seat in day or two: Party leaders

The BJP, in a day or two, will announce the name of its candidate for Bhabanipur assembly byelections, where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is a contender, top leaders of the saffron party said on Tuesday.

The TMC supremo, who lost elections to her bête noire Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram, will have to get elected to the Assembly within six months of the assembly polls to retain her CM chair, in accordance with the constitutional norms.

Bypolls are scheduled to be held in Bhawanipore and two other seats in Bengal on September 30.

Three other constituencies -- Khardah, Dinhata and Shantipur -- are also lying vacant, but the EC is yet to announce dates for byelections to these seats.

BJP state general secretary Sayantan Basu told PTI that names of candidates for Bhabanipur as well as two other assembly seats in Murshidabad will be decided "in a day or two."

Earlier in the day, state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said that a nominee for Bhabanipur might be chosen by Wednesday or Thursday.

"The Election Commission has decided to hold by-elections on September 30. We had the idea that it would be held sometime later. But we must obey the EC order, we don't oppose independent constitutional bodies like the EC, unlike the TMC," Ghosh said.

In a dig at the TMC supremo, he said that the ruling party, in its bid to clear the way for Banerjee, made Sovandeb Chattopadhyay vacate the Bhabanipur seat, which he had won by a wide margin.

Speculation was rife that the TMC will field Chattopadhyay, the state agriculture minister, from Khardah constituency, where winning candidate Kajal Sinha died of COVID.

"Now, with no word about bypoll in seats other than Bhabanipur, Jangipur, Samserganj, his political career has plunged into uncertainty. Will Chattopadhyay continue to be a minister if byelections for the remaining seats are not held by first week of November?" the BJP state president stated.

Ghosh continued his tirade against the TMC, claiming that the state government is regularly facing setbacks in the court of law, but it would still rush from one bench to another despite the snub.

In a jolt for the Mamata Banerjee-led government, the Calcutta High Court last month ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into allegations of "heinous" crimes in the aftermath of elections.

On Monday, it also refrained the state police from taking any coercive action against BJP's Suvendu Adhikari, who is the leader of opposition in the House, in cases filed against him. The TMC has moved the division bench challenging the order.

In a jibe at TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who was grilled on September 6 for around nine hours by the Enforcement Directorate in a coal smuggling case, Ghosh said, "After the interrogation, he got angry and made impossible claims of defeating the BJP everywhere. We understand his anger and frustration."

"He should remember that the TMC has base only in one state. Be it Tripura to elsewhere in India, the party has no influence. Any dream to defeat the BJP will remain a pipe dream," Ghosh asserted.

The TMC had been trying to gain foothold in Tripura, where elections are slated to be held in 2023.

Rejecting the BJP leader's assertions, TMC spokesman Kunal Ghosh said that the BJP is "conspiring to harass its political opponents," who pose threat to its electoral ambitions, with the help of central agencies such as the ED and the CBI.

"The BJP is scared of TMC's popularity after its massive setback in West Bengal. The party is afraid of TMC''s connection with the masses in Tripura. People in Tripura want to get rid of the Biplab Deb government. Dilip babu's words make no sense, they are hollow," he added.