The Bengal BJP wing has written a letter to its central leadership stating that holding by-polls for six vacant assembly seats is not conducive due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation in the state.
There are six vacant assembly seats in West Bengal. Recently Dinhata and Santipur assembly seats fell vacant after BJP leaders Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar resigned as MLAs after winning to retain their Parliament memberships.
Similarly, elections could not be held in Samserganj and Jangipur seats in Murshidabad due to the death of candidates during the recent state Assembly Polls. The Kharda seat also fell vacant in North 24-Parganas district after TMC candidate Kajal Sinha passed away before he could celebrate his victory.
Speaking to News18.com, State BJP president Dilip Ghosh who also held a party meeting today, said, “Yes, we wrote a letter to the central leadership expressing our reservation to hold by-polls in West Bengal.”
He said, “The state government is not allowing public meetings and there are restrictions in many activities and services due to the pandemic situation. They are also not announcing dates for municipal polls in the state. It’s been pending for years. Therefore, we felt that the situation is not conducive to hold the election due to coronavirus.”
When asked the way forward if the state government agrees to hold the municipal polls in the coming months, he said, “Let them announce the dates first then we will decide our stand on by-polls.”
In the context of today’s organisational meeting, he said, “Today’s meeting hovered around municipal polls. We are preparing for the civic polls. There will be more than 100 committees that will be headed by senior party leaders in all the municipalities and corporations. They will chalk out plans as per their respective wards. It’s unfortunate that the state government is not announcing the civic poll dates but that does not mean we should not be prepared for it. We are doing our job and will wait for the dates to be announced.”
On July 15, a team of delegates from Trinamool Congress met officials of the Election Commission (EC) in Delhi with a plea to hold the by-polls at the earliest for six vacant assembly seats in West Bengal.
Then, TMC MP Saugata Roy had said, “We all know how Bengal suffered (hinting at COVID) when EC organised eight-phase polling in the State. We expect that this time EC will act sensibly and they will conduct the by-polls at the earliest.”
On May 21, to make way for Mamata Banerjee, TMC MLA from Bhawanipur constituency, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay resigned from the post.
As per the Constitution, Mamata Banerjee – who lost her Nandigram seat in this Assembly Polls – can run the state as a Chief Minister but she will have to get elected in the next six months to retain her post. In such a case, a by-poll in six vacant assembly seats must be conducted by November 5, 2021.
TMC is very keen on contesting the by-polls (in six vacant seats) at the earliest as they suspect that the EC may defer the poll citing the third wave of Covid-19.
Article 164(4) of the Constitution states that a minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the Legislature of the State shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a minister. This means, Mamata Banerjee can remain the Chief Minister of West Bengal but as per the Constitution she has to be elected within six months to continue her post.
If she is not elected at the end of six months (due to poll deferment by the EC), then she has the backdoor entry option through Bidhan Parishad or Legislative Council.
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