The Trinamool Congress has urged the Election Commission to defer the July 10 bypolls in four Assembly constituencies in West Bengal, proposing that they be held along with by-elections in six segments whose sitting MLAs have won the Lok Sabha elections. “The Election Commission of India has declared bypolls for 4 Assembly seats in West Bengal—Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Maniktala. You are certainly aware of the fact that 6 other seats are soon going to be vacant as the sitting MLAs have been elected as MPs & will be resigning soon. These 6 seats are—Madarihat, Naihati, Taldangra, Mednipur, Sitai, and Haroa,” the party wrote to the poll panel on Monday. The TMC letter added, “There is absolutely no valid or rational reason for conducting staggered bypolls in the same state for different Assembly seats that are vacant and soon to be vacant. This only serves to affect governance & hinder smooth functioning of the administration by keeping the state in election mode constantly. It is prudent as well as resource-effective to conduct bypolls for all 10 Assembly seats together after the 6 seats are vacated by the sitting MLAs who will soon be required to resign within 6 months.” Mentioning some of the controversies the poll panel had found itself mired in during the recent Lok Sabha elections, the TMC said the panel had failed to act on most of its complaints. “The Election Commission has faced severe criticism from the people for conducting the Lok Sabha 2024 elections in 7 long phases. The state of West Bengal was made to go through polling in all 7 phases which was discriminatory & seemed like a targeted act,” the party’s letter read. The TMC also alleged an “absolute lack of intent on behalf of the Election Commission to enforce the Model Code of Conduct uniformly or to even ensure a level playing field for all Opposition parties”. “This latest move of holding staggered bypolls is yet another discriminatory act targeting the government of West Bengal. This is going to have serious adverse effects on smooth functioning of the government and on daily governance. Keeping a state in election mode constantly serves no purpose, especially when it’s being done for no valid reason. We, therefore, urge you to reconsider your decision and to conduct bypolls in all 10 vacant Assembly seats simultaneously later in the year,” the TMC wrote to the poll panel. Three of the four seats for which bypolls have been announced—Raigunj, Bagdah and Ranaghat Dakshin—became vacant after sitting MLAs resigned to contest the Lok Sabha elections. Maniktala fell vacant after the demise of TMC veteran and minister Sadhan Pandey. The six seats set to be vacant soon are Madarihat, where MLA Monoj Tigga won the Lok Sabha poll in Alipurduar; Naihati, where MLA Partha Bhowmik was elected from Barrackpore; Taldangra, where MLA Arup Chakraborty was elected from Bankura; Medinipur, where MLA June Maliya won the polls; Sitai, where MLA Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia was elected from Cooch Behar; and Haroa, where MLA Haji Nurul Islam won the poll from Basirhat. All of the six MLAs except for Monoj Tigga belong to the TMC.
