The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Hold simultaneous bypoll on 10 seats: TMC to EC
THE TRINAMOOL Congress has urged the Election Commission to defer the July 10 bypolls in four Assembly constituencies in West Bengal, and proposed to jointly conduct them with the by-elections to the six seats, which are likely to fall vacant after the sitting MLAS, elected as MPS, in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, resign from their posts.
In a letter to the EC on Tuesday, the TMC stated, “The Election Commission of India has declared bypolls for 4 Assembly seats in West Bengal - Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Maniktala. You are certainly aware of the fact that 6 other seats are soon going to be vacant as the sitting MLAS have been elected as MPS & will resign soon. These six seats are -- Madarihat, Naihati, Taldangra, Medinipur, Sitai, and Horoa.”
In its appeal, the party in its letter mentioned ,“There is absolutely no valid or rational reason for conducting staggered by polls in the same state for different Assembly seats that are vacantand would soon to be vacant. This only serves to affect governance& hinder smooth functioning of the administration by keeping the state in election mode constantly. It is prudent as well as resourceeffective to conduct by polls for all 10 Assembly seats together after the 6 seats are vacated by the sitting MLAS who will soon be requiredto re sign within 6 months .”
BJP'S Madarihat MLA Monoj Tigga has been elected from Alipurduar, Naihati MLA Partha Bhowmik and Taldangra MLA Arup Chakraborty have been elected from Barrackpore and Bankura; Medinipur MLA June Maliya, Sitai MLA Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, and Haroa MP Haji Nurul Islam have been elected as MPS from
Medinipur, Coochbehar and Basirhat, respectively.
All the six MLAS except Monoj Tigga belong to the TMC.
Further, mentioning some of the controversies the poll panel had found itself mired in during the recent Lok Sabha elections, the TMC said the panel had failed to act on most of its complaints. “The Election Commission has faced severe criticism from people for conducting the Lok Sabha 2024 elections in seven long phases. The state of West Bengal was made to go through polling in all seven phases which was discriminatory & seemed like a targeted act,” the TMC letter read.