New Delhi: Priyanka Tibrewal from BJP will face off against Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal chief minister, on September 30 in the Bhabanipur bypoll.
Tiberwal, who had earlier served as a legal adviser to the former Union minister Babul Supriyo, also contested the Bengal assembly poll in April-May but lost to her Trinamool Congress rival. Tibrewal joined the BJP in 2014 on Babul Supriyo’s insistence.
Despite taking charge as chief minister for the third time, Banerjee lost in Nandigram, the seat in which she contested, against her aide-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP in the assembly polls. With no legislative council in Bengal, Banerjee needs to be elected to the state legislative assembly within six months of her taking charge as CM to continue in the post.
The Bhabanipur assembly seat was vacated by the West Bengal agriculture minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay in May, making way for Banerjee to contest from the seat.
Given that she was fighting a high-stakes election against the BJP, Banerjee made a dramatic decision of contesting from Nandigram leaving behind her safe seat of Bhowanipore, to send a message to TMC cadres that she was leading from the front to take on the BJP. The BJP had pulled out all stops to ensure that Banerjee is defeated in her own constituency.
A high-octane campaign preceded the election day in which Banerjee and Adhikari traded choicest of barbs. The Nandigram battle drew national attention.
The battle for Nandigram went down to the wire when confusion reigned supreme on the day when results were declared. Initially, many had tweeted that Banerjee had won the seat with a majority of 1,200 votes. But towards the end of the day, it was announced by the Election Commission that Adhikari bagged the seat with about 10,000 votes’ majority. While Adhikari secured 62, 677 votes, Banerjee got 52,815 votes.
