Mamata Banerjee-led TMC announces candidates for Bengal, Assam bypolls

The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) announced its candidates on Sunday for the October 6 assembly bypolls at Murshidabad district’s Rejinagar and East Midnapore’s Nandigram and the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat in Assam, keeping the rival faction, which claims the right to the TMC’s poll symbol, a step behind.

Sanchita Pradhan (Dey) and Rabiul Alam Chowdhury will contest the Nandigram and Rejinagar seats respectively, the party announced on X on around 7.30pm.

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It also announced that Abdul Salam will contest the Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll, which will also be held on October 6.

The rival factions have geared up for their first electoral battle in Bengal amid uncertainty over who the Election Commission of India (EC) will grant the right to the poll symbol that Banerjee designed before launching the TMC in 1998.

The results for the two Bengal bypolls will be announced on October 9. The deadline for filing nominations is September 16, the day both factions must submit some additional documents to the EC to establish their claim on the symbol. Both factions met chief electoral commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in Delhi on Saturday.

Dr Santanu Sen, spokesperson of the rival faction led by MLA Ritabrata Banerjee, said, “It is natural for a political party to contest elections. What needs to be seen is how the people, who rejected a party three months ago and welcomed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will express their disapproval once again.”

In the April state polls, the BJP won 207 of Bengal’s 294 seats against the TMC’s 80 and secured one more seat, Falta, in a repoll held in May.

The CPI(M) and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) each won one seat in April while the Congress secured two. .

On June 3, the assembly speaker recognised as many as 58 rebel TMC legislators as the principal opposition party in the House. Mamata Banerjee approached the Supreme Court which referred the matter to the EC.

In April, suspended TMC legislator Humayun Kabir won from Nowda and Rejinagar for his newly-launched Aam Janata Unnayan Party but retained Nowda.

Then leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, won from his traditional seat, Nandigram, and also defeated Mamata Banerjee at her Bhabanipur seat. After being sworn in as chief minister, he decided to represent Kolkata’s Bhabanipur.

A by-election to the Nagaon seat is being held because its Congress MP, Pradyut Bordoloi, resigned from the party and joined the BJP in March.