West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to re-contest from her old seat of Bhabanipur in South Kolkata. Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, the incumbent agriculture minister, has tendered his resignation, paving the way for the CM's re-election.

Banerjee lost in the prestige fight of Nandigram (140 km from Kolkata) to her protege-turned-bete noire Suvendu Adhikari by less than 2000 votes. Adhikari is now the Leader of Opposition.

 

She now needs to contest and win elections from another seat within six months to continue assuming office.

Chattopadhyay, a long term Trinamool veteran and a staunch Mamata Banerjee loyalist, contested the Bhabanipur seat defeating BJP's Rudranil Ghosh by a comfortable 29,000 votes. He got nearly 58 per cent vote share and was subsequently sworn in as the agriculture minister.

Sources in the Trinamool say, Chattopadhyay was asked to step down to make way for the Chief Minister in her old constituency. He tendered his resignation to Speaker on Friday afternoon. He will, however, retain his portfolio in the Cabinet. The party may ask him to contest from another seat.

 

Chattopadhyay has been winning south Kolkata's Rasbehari constituency, the seat adjacent to Bhababipur, since 1998 and is a five-term MLA. He was previously in charge of the state power department.

Apart from the chief minister, Amit Mitra - the state finance minister - needs to win an election to continue assuming office. Mitra did not contest polls because of ill-health and co-morbidities. He had previously been elected from the Khardah assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas. The seat, too, has fallen vacant following the death of Trinamool's Kajal Sinha, who succumbed to Covid.

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Published on May 21, 2021