The by-election to Bhabanipur assembly seat in south Kolkata, being contested by Mamata Banerjee to retain West Bengal’s chief ministership, started at 7am on Thursday amid tight security, officials said.
Elections to Samserganj and Jangipur assembly seats in Bengal’s Murshidabad are also being held today after they were deferred in April following the death of two candidates.
The counting of votes will be done on October 3.
The by-poll became necessary after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) sitting lawmaker from Bhabanipur, Sovandeb Chatterjee resigned so that Banerjee could contest from the seat and retain her berth.
Even though the Trinamool Congress swept the assembly polls and returned to power for the third consecutive term after winning 213 seats out of the 292 contested in April this year, Banerjee lost from Nandigram to Bharatiya Janata Party’s Suvendu Adhikari, her protégé-turned-adversary.
She, however, took oath as the state’s chief minister on May 5.
As per law, the TMC leader needs to get elected to the state assembly by November 5 in order to continue in her post.
“Around 35 companies of Central forces have been deployed in Bhabanipur. This apart, 38 police pickets have been set up. One Central police observer has been deployed. There are 287 booths in the constituency,” said an Election Commission of India official.
The heavy rains which lashed Kolkata have stopped even though there is water logging in a few pockets in Bhabanipur.
“The water level has receded. Apart from a few pockets, the water level has gone down and people are coming in to vote,” said Firhad Hakim, chairman of the board of administrators that run the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
The constituency has 206,389 electors, out of which 95,143 are female voters, which is around 46%. More than 20% of Bhabanipur residents are Muslims, while Sikhs and non-Bengali speaking Hindus comprise around 34% of the local population.
