With CM Mamata racing against time to get elected, TMC MPs to meet EC at 4.30 pm today

Six TMC MPs will visit the Election Commission at 4.30 pm on Thursday as Mamata Banerjee is racing against time to be elected to the West Bengal Assembly. Writing on Twitter, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien announced that the party will press for the conduct of by-election to 7 Assembly constituencies. On June 23, Mamata Banerjee had told reporters that bypolls could be held within 7 days as the novel coronavirus situation in the country is currently "under control".

At present, only Banerjee and 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. 

Congress alleges ploy to target Mamata

On July 6, the West Bengal Assembly cleared a resolution to form a Legislative Council with 195 members voting in favour of the same. BJP MLAs and ISF legislator Nawsad Siddiqui were among the 69 members who opposed the aforesaid resolution.  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. This was perceived as a jibe at Mamata Banerjee whose future as the CM is under cloud. 

Meanwhile, the Congress party has gone to the extent of linking Tirath Singh Rawat's resignation to the fate of Mamata Banerjee. Addressing a press briefing on July 5, Deputy Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly Karan Mahara quashed Rawat's explanation that he put in his papers to avert a constitutional crisis. According to him, BJP was using the ex-Uttarakhand CM as a scapegoat to ensure that by-elections are not held in West Bengal thereby forcing the TMC supremo to step down. 

Senior Congress leader Karan Mahara remarked, "The real issue is that the target is not Tirath but Mamata Banerjee. The way she has challenged the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi). We also know that the PM does not tolerate any challenge. We have seen what happened to LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi". He added, "The way (the Centre) misuses constitutional authorities, they will sacrifice Tirath to ensure that Mamata does not contest".