In A Relief For Mamata Banerjee, EC Announces West Bengal Bypolls

A day before yesterday (4 September), the Election Commission of India announced that the byelection in the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency in West Bengal will be held on 30 September.

Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee is expected to contest from this seat. In the assembly elections held earlier this year, Banerjee contested the Nandigram seat and lost against BJP's Suvendu Adhikari. As per the constitutional norm, she must get elected by fifth November to continue as the CM. Article 164 (4) of the Constitution says that a minister who is not an MLA for six consecutive months shall cease to be a minister at the end of that period.

The election to the Samserganj and Jangipur Assembly seats, also in West Bengal, and Pipli in Odisha too will be held on 30 September, reports The Hindu. The counting of votes in all four constituencies will be held on third October while the nominations will be filed from 6 to 13 September.

The election to the three seats was first adjourned because of the death of some candidates and later deferred in the light of the second wave of COVID-19.

However, the Election Commission has kept the bypolls to three Lok Sabha and 31 other Assembly seats on hold.

The Election Commission said the Chief Secretaries of Odisha and West Bengal informed it that the COVID-19 situation was under control and that the West Bengal Chief Secretary said the State was ready to hold election.

“He also informed that in view of the administrative exigencies and public interest and to avoid a vacuum in the state, byelection for 159-Bhabanipur, Kolkata from where Ms Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister, intends to contest elections may be conducted,” the statement said.

“Considering the constitutional exigency and special request from State of West Bengal, it has decided to hold by-election in 159- Bhabanipur AC,” it added. The Election Commission had held a meeting with State officials on Wednesday, and said that stricter norms had been put in place, including limiting attendance at indoor meetings to 30 per cent of the allowed capacity or 200 persons, whichever is less, it added.

The ECI said that the Chief Secretaries of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh and the Adviser of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu informed it of the flood-related constraints, festivals and the COVID-19 situation.

“They suggested that it would be advisable to have byelections after the festival season ends,” it added.