EC holds bypoll meet with West Bengal chief secy HK Dwivedi

The Election Commission of India in a virtual meeting with West Bengal chief secretary HK Dwivedi on Wednesday enquired whether the current Covid-19 situation was conducive to hold byelections in the state.

The EC also sought details on the time and duration of the Durga Puja holidays, flood situation and several other related issues, sources in the know said.

According to sources in state secretariat Nabanna, there is a possibility that bypolls may take place around the festive season. The EC had earlier asked the state officials to make preliminary preparations for byelections. EC official Sudip Jain is likely to visit the state soon to take stock of the situation.

For the record, during this year’s assembly elections, the ruling Trinamool Congress had accused Jain of being biased against the party and urged the EC to divest him of his Bengal responsibilities. But the commission had rejected the demands.

Before taking a call on the bypolls, the EC is also likely to seek information on Bengal’s active Covid-19 cases from the relevant central authority. The state’s chief electoral commissioner and chief secretary have already informed the EC that cases have declined, and the situation is conducive to hold polls.

Seven assembly seats are vacant in the state. Dinhata and Santipur assembly seats fell vacant after BJP leaders Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar resigned as MLAs and chose to retain their MP seats. Elections to Samserganj and Jangipara seats in Murshidabad were cancelled following the death of candidates due to Covid-19. Bhabanipore was vacated by Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay for Banerjee. Khardaha fell vacant following the death of the Trinamool Congress candidate. Gosaba will also face bypolls.

Among these, Bhabanipur is the most significant constituency as chief minister Mamata Banerjee will contest from this seat. The six-month period for Banerjee to get elected to the assembly will expire on November 21.

A few weeks back, the EC had asked all Bengal parties to send their suggestions on bypolls by August 31. Last week, a Trinamool Congress delegation comprising Saugata Roy, Mahua Moitra, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Jawhar Sircar had submitted a memorandum to the EC urging it to hold bypolls at the earliest. They had met chief election commissioner Sushil Chandra.

For all the latest Business News Click Here 

 For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! TheDailyCheck is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected] The content will be deleted within 24 hours.