TMC names candidates for Assembly bypolls; widow of former minister, daughter of MP among picks

In Bagdah Assembly constituency, the TMC has nominated Madhuparna Thakur as its candidate. Thakur is the daughter of TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur and hails from the Matua Thakurbari family.

The Election Commission of India had announced on Monday that bypolls would be held in 13 Assembly constituencies across the country on July 10. Nominations for the four Assembly seats in West Bengal will be accepted from Friday, June 14.

In three of the four Assembly seats – Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagdah – BJP MLAs had switched sides to join the ruling TMC and unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections. While Kalyani lost to BJP candidate Kartik Paul, Adhikari lost to sitting BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar. Both Kalyani and Adhikari have been named candidates in their respective Assembly segments.

Ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections, Biswajit Das had quit the TMC and joined the BJP. After being elected from Bagdah, however, he returned to the TMC. But he was defeated by the BJP’s Shantanu Thakur in Bongaon in the Lok Sabha elections. The TMC chose to pick Thakur in his place from Bagdah.

The fourth Assembly bypoll will be held in the Maniktala seat, which fell vacant after the demise of TMC veteran Sadhan Pandey.

As per the votes polled in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP was ahead of its rivals in the first three Assembly segments while the TMC was ahead in Maniktala, but only by 3,500 votes.