Bhabanipur bypolls: Mamata files nomination, to contest against BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal

Sept. 10: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday filed her nomination for the byelection to the Bhabanipur seat. The BJP chose its youth wing leader and advocate Priyanka Tibrewal to take on the Chief Minister in her bastion. The byelection will take place on September 30. The result will be declared on October 3.

Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, state cabinet minister and TMC MLA from Bhabanipur, vacated the seat to facilitate her return to the assembly from there. Mamata Banerjee, who lost the election in Nandigram, has to win this bypoll to retain the chief minister’s post. Banerjee is a resident of Bhabanipur and had won the seat twice in 2011 and 2016.

The Trinamool Congress supremo will be pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party’s Priyanka Tibrewal and Left Front’s Srijib Biswas. Tibrewal is the vice-president of BJP’s youth wing in West Bengal. The Election Commission had adjourned the polling in Jangipur and Samserganj after a candidate in each of these constituencies died of Covid-19 ahead of the April 26 polling. The BJP has picked Milan Ghosh for Samserganj and Sujit Das for Jangipur constituencies. TMC leaders Jakir Hossain and Amirul Islam will be the party’s candidates for Jangipur and Samserganj seats respectively.