Kolkata, Sept. 13 -- The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress on Sunday announced its candidates for the October 6 bypolls in West Bengal and Assam, entering the electoral contest amid an ongoing dispute over the party's name and poll symbol with the rival faction led by MLA Ritabrata Banerjee.
The party named Sanchita Pradhan (Dey) as its candidate for the high-profile Nandigram Assembly seat in East Midnapore and Rabiul Alam Chowdhury for Rejinagar in Murshidabad. It also fielded Abdul Salam for the Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll in Assam.
The announcement comes ahead of the September 16 deadline for filing nominations and submitting additional documents to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to establish claims over the TMC's poll symbol. Representatives of both factions met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in Delhi on Saturday.
MP Kalyan Banerjee confirmed that Mamata Banerjee led TMC would field candidates for the bypolls on Sunday morning, following which the candidates were named in the evening. He also confirmed that the candidates would contest the elections in Nandigram and Rejinagar using the party's twin flowers symbol.
The Nandigram seat fell vacant after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who had won both Nandigram and Bhowanipore, chose to retain Bhowanipore. Rejinagar was vacated by Aam Janata Unnayan Party founder Humayun Kabir, who had won both Rejinagar and Nowda but retained Nowda.
The Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll has been necessitated by Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi's resignation and subsequent switch to the BJP.
The results of the Bengal bypolls will be declared on October 9.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.