Bhabanipur bypoll Key Candidates: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, BJP Candidate Priyanka Tibrewal file nomination

Bhabanipur bypolls: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee filed her nomination for the Bhabanipur by-election on September 10, 2021. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief will need to win the by-election to retain her chief ministerial post. The BJP candidate for the Bhabanipur bypoll, Priyanka Tibrewal filed her nomination on September 13th.

Alipore, West Bengal: BJP candidate for Bhabanipur by-poll, Priyanka Tibrewal files her nomination. She will face CM and TMC candidate Mamata Banerjee in the by-poll, scheduled for 30th September. pic.twitter.com/M8E3zTtf4j

— ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2021

Bhabanipur bypoll  is scheduled to be held on September 30 and the counting of votes will be held on October 3, 2021. Bhabanipur is the traditional seat of WB Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The elected Bhabanipur MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay vacated the seat for the Chief Minister after she lost from Nandigram seat by 1,956 votes against BJP's Suvendu Adhikari.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to file nomination for Bhabanipur Assembly by-election today.

(File pic) pic.twitter.com/4uenunfF3M

— ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2021

Bhabanipur bypolls: Key Candidates

TMC Candidate: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

BJP Candidate: Priyanka Tibrewal, Vice President of BJP's youth wing in West Bengal has been pitted against West Bengal CM from the Bhabanipur assembly constituency.

CPI (M) Candidate- Young lawyer Srijib Biswas who hails from Bhabanipur has been fielded against Banerjee.

INC: Congress has decided that it will not field any candidate against CM Mamata Banerjee from the Bhabanipur assembly seat.

Battle for Bhabanipur 

The BJP is preparing to put up a tough fight against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur in an attempt to repeat Nandigram's result. The Left sans Congress has also joined the battle to make it a triangular one. 

The BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal, who is a practicing advocate in the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court, had lost the West Bengal Assembly polls from Entally. She is one of the petitioners who had moved the Calcutta HC over the post-poll violence in the state. 

Congress has decided to not take part in the Bhabanipur by-election, but CPI(M) has named Shrijeeb Biswas as its candidate. West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, however, insisted that it would be a direct faceoff between BJP and TMC in Bhabanipur. 

During the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls, TMC's Sovandeb Chattopadhyay had defeated BJP's Rudranil Ghosh by a margin of 28,719 votes. Chattopadhyay then vacated the seat to make way for TMC Chief Mamata Banerjee, her traditional seat, after she lost from Nandigram. 

West Bengal Bypoll Schedule: Bhabanipur, Samserganj and Jangipur election date

The Election Commission of India announced the West Bengal Assembly bypoll schedule on September 4, 2021. ECI announced bypoll schedule for three West Bengal Assembly seats- Bhabanipur, Samserganj and Jangipur and one Odisha Assembly seat - Pipli. 

The elections for Samserganj and Jangipur assembly constituencies were delayed due to the death of Congress candidate in Samserganj and RSP candidate in Jangipur.

Samserganj and Jangipur bypoll: Key Candidates 

Background 

TMC Chief Mamata Banerjee clinched a landslide victory in 2021 West Bengal Assembly Elections on May 2, 2021 with her party winning 213 seats, while the BJP won 77 seats. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had taken a huge risk by leaving her traditional Bhabanipur constituency to take on TMC turncoat Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram, a Trinamool Bastion. Though Nandigram was a TMC stronghold, it was known to be a strong area for the Adhikari family.

After Banerjee's loss from Nandigram, incumbent Bhabanipur MLA, senior Trinamool Congress leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay resigned from the seat on the same day, paving way for the CM to contest from there. He said while resigning that it was her seat, he was just protecting it. Banerjee had won twice from Bhabanipur earlier.