New Delhi: A Congress party source said on Monday that the party is in no mood to field a candidate again against West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in the larger interest of opposition unity. Bengal Congress unit president Adhir Ranjan Choudhary is likely to formally announce it in Kolkata. It may be recalled that during her recent meeting with Congress working president Sonia Gandhi, Mamata had stressed the importance of opposition unity to take on the BJP.
The Election Commission on Saturday announced the date of bypoll for three assembly constituencies including Mamata Banerjee’s stronghold Bhavanipur. The other two are Samserganj and Jangipur in the Murshidabad district. All three seats will go to the polls on September 30 and counting will take place on October 3. In West Bengal, bypolls were stopped in Samserganj and Jangipur due to the death of candidates ahead of the elections during the recently concluded assembly elections.
On the other hand, bye-election has become necessary in the Bhavanipur assembly constituency as incumbent MLA Sovondeb Chattopadhyay had resigned from his seat to make it to Banerjee. Mamata Banerjee lost to BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram in the recently concluded elections and is still not an elected member of the legislative body.