Bengal: Congress announces candidates for Rejinagar, Nandigram bypolls

Kolkata: All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Friday announced the names of the party candidates for the forthcoming bypolls for Nandigram Assembly Constituency in East Midnapore district and Rejinagar Assembly Constituency in Murshidabad district of West Bengal next month.

AICC issued a press statement on Friday night claiming that Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge approved the proposals for the candidature of Mohd Abdullahil Kafi from Rejinagar and Milan Pradhan from Nandigram for the upcoming by-elections for these two constituencies next month.

The bypolls for these two constituencies will be conducted on October 6 that is just before the forthcoming Durga Puja festival in the state. The counting of votes and poll results will be declared on October 9.

The date before which the elections will have to be concluded is October 11.

In the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections earlier this year, current Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari was elected from both Nandigram and Bhabanipur Assembly Constituencies in South Kolkata.

At Bhabanipur, Adhikari defeated his predecessor and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by a margin of more than 15,000 votes.

Adhikari retained the Bhabanipur constituency, thus necessitating bypolls for Nandigram.

On the other hand, former Trinamool Congress legislator Humayun Kabir contested and was elected as an Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) candidate from both Naoda and Rejinagar Assembly constituencies, both in Murshidabad district.

Later, Kabir decided to retain Naoda, thus necessitating bypolls for the Rejinagar seat.

Since 2021, Nandigram, because of Suvendu Adhikari, has been a virtual fortress for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Therefore, political observers are not in two minds about the results of the by-elections there.

However, political observers say that because of the demography of Rejinagar, this particular Assembly constituency will be quite tough to win for the BJP.

"On the other hand, Trinamool Congress, which is now divided into three factions, also does not seem to have much poll prospects from Rejinagar this time. Rather, CPI-M and Congress can view the opportunity for increasing their tally in the West Bengal Assembly constituency by one seat. The Rejinagar bypolls might also give some indication about where the minority votes in the state might shift to in the coming days," a Kolkata-based political observer said.

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