Hold bypolls to 7 vacant Assembly seats in Bengal, Trinamool urges EC

For Mamata to continue in CM chair, the byelections should be held before November.

A delegation of six Trinamool Congress MPs met the Election Commission on Thursday urging it to hold byelections to seven vacant Assembly seats in West Bengal, arguing that the number of COVID-19 cases at present were 17 times lower than the numbers in April-May when the Assembly polls were held. The delegation included Lok Sabha MPs Sudip Bandhopadhyay, Saugata Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Rajya Sabha MPs Derek O’ Brien and Sukhendu Sekhar Ray. It is crucial for the TMC that these bypolls are held before November for Mamata Banerjee to continue in the Chief Minister’s chair. Article 164(4) of the Constitution states: “A Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the Legislature of the State shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister.” Having lost the Nandigram seat in the Assembly polls by a margin of 1,956 votes, currently she is not a member of the Assembly.