A Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation will meet Election Commission (EC) officials in New Delhi on Thursday demanding holding of the bypolls in six vacant Assembly seats in West Bengal at the earliest.
“We will meet the EC officials on Thursday and request them to hold the bypolls soon. We will request that a week for campaigning will be enough for the bypolls. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already said that she will focus on holding the civic polls in the state after the bypolls are over. We will have nothing to say if the EC does not hold the bypolls on time, but will continue with our demand,” TMC MP Sougata Roy said here on Tuesday.
Mamata Banerjee, who lost the Assembly election from Nandigram, will have to get elected in the next six months to continue as chief minister. In that case, the bypolls must be conducted by November 5. After the election results, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, the TMC MLA from Bhabanipur constituency, vacated the seat to allow Banerjee to contest from there. Banerjee had won from Bhabanipur twice since 2011.