Mother of Suvendu Adhikari's slain aide to be BJP's candidate for Nandigram bypoll

Kolkata: The BJP on Tuesday announced the names of the party's candidates for the forthcoming bye-elections for Nandigram Assembly Constituency in East Midnapore district and Rejinagar Assembly Constituency in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.

From Nandigram, the party had fielded Hasirani Rath, the mother late Chandranath Rath, the slain personal assistant of West Bengal Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, who was shot dead at Madhyamgram in North 24 Parganas district of the state on the evening of May 6 this year.

The murder took place two days after the results of West Bengal Assembly polls were announced, marking a landslide victory for the BJP.

The BJP candidate for the Rejinagar bypolls is Sakharav Sarkar.

Party insiders said Hasirani Rath will offer puja at the Janakinath temple of Nandigram Assembly constituency before filing her nomination. Workers and supporters have already started assembling to join the event of Hasirani Rath filing her nomination.

It is learnt that after offering puja, she will lead a procession with around 20,000 workers and supporters to file her nomination. The procession will reach the District Magistrate's office at Haldia and, thereafter, she will file her nomination. The Chief Minister will also be present during the filing of the nomination.

The last date for filing the nominations for the Nandigram and Rejinagar bypolls is September 16. The polls will be conducted on October 6 and the results will be declared on October 9.

In the recently-concluded Assembly elections earlier this year, Suvendu Adhikari was elected from both Nandigram and Bhabanipur Assembly constituencies in South Kolkata.

At Bhabanipur, Suvendu Adhikari defeated his predecessor and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by a margin of over 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 Naoda and Rejinagar Assembly constituencies, both in Murshidabad district.

Humayun Kabir won and retained Naoda and for Rejinagar he has fielded his son Gholam Nabi Azad as the candidate for the bypoll.

Since 2021, Nandigram, because of Suvendu Adhikari, had been a virtual fortress for the BJP. Therefore, political observers are not in any doubts about the results of the bye-elections there.

However, where Rejinagar is considered, political observers admit that because of the demography, this particular Assembly constituency will be quite tough for the saffron camp.

“On the other hand, Trinamool Congress, which is now divided into three factions, also does not seem to be having much prospects from Rejinagar this time. Rather, the 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,” said a city-based political observer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

IANS

[email protected]