Voting began at 7 AM on Saturday for by-polls to the four assembly constituencies of Dinhata in Cooch Behar, Shantipur in Nadia, Khardah in North 24 Parganas and Gosaba in South 24 Parganas districts, an election commission of India (ECI) official said.
In Dinhata, TMC’s heavyweight north Bengal leader Udayan Guha is fighting to reclaim the seat which BJP had snatched from him by a whisker in polls held last April. The by-election at Dinhata were necessitated by the resignation of Nisith Pramanik, now Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, who favoured keeping his Lok Sabha membership over sitting in the opposition in West Bengal’s assembly. Guha, a two-time MLA from Dinhata, is up against BJP’s Ashok Mandal, who as a TMC candidate had defeated him, a Forward Bloc candidate then, in 2006. The bypoll to Shantipur was necessitated by the resignation of BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar, who too resigned from the assembly seat in favour of retaining his Lok Sabha membership. State minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, who resigned from Bhabanipur to facilitate Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s election to the Assembly, is fighting from Khardah, where TMC’s Kajal Sinha died due to COVID-19, just days after polls to the seat were held Bypoll to the Gosaba seat in Sunderbans was also necessitated by the death of TMC’s Jayanta Naskar, who too was suffering from Covid. The EC has deployed 27 companies of central armed forces in Dinhata, 22 in Santipur, 20 in Khardah and 23 in Gosaba, an official said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Voting began at 7 AM on Saturday for by-polls to the four assembly constituencies of Dinhata in Cooch Behar, Shantipur in Nadia, Khardah in North 24 Parganas and Gosaba in South 24 Parganas districts, an election commission of India (ECI) official said. In Dinhata, TMC’s heavyweight north Bengal leader Udayan Guha is fighting to reclaim the seat which BJP had snatched from him by a whisker in polls held last April. The by-election at Dinhata were necessitated by the resignation of Nisith Pramanik, now Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, who favoured keeping his Lok Sabha membership over sitting in the opposition in West Bengal’s assembly. Guha, a two-time MLA from Dinhata, is up against BJP’s Ashok Mandal, who as a TMC candidate had defeated him, a Forward Bloc candidate then, in 2006. The bypoll to Shantipur was necessitated by the resignation of BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar, who too resigned from the assembly seat in favour of retaining his Lok Sabha membership. State minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, who resigned from Bhabanipur to facilitate Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s election to the Assembly, is fighting from Khardah, where TMC’s Kajal Sinha died due to COVID-19, just days after polls to the seat were held Bypoll to the Gosaba seat in Sunderbans was also necessitated by the death of TMC’s Jayanta Naskar, who too was suffering from Covid. The EC has deployed 27 companies of central armed forces in Dinhata, 22 in Santipur, 20 in Khardah and 23 in Gosaba, an official said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor