TMC delegation to meet poll panel today

PARTY TO PRESS FOR IMPENDING POLLS CRUCIAL FOR MAMATA’S UNINTERRUPTED CONTINUANCE AS THE CM

KOLKATA: Voicing displeasure over the “delay” in holding elections to seven West Bengal assembly seats. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday said a party delegation will meet the Election Commission on July 15 to press for the impending polls crucial for Mamata Banerjee’s uninterrupted continuance as the chief minister.

Sukhendu Shekhar Ray, a senior leader of the state’s ruling paty, also taunted the poll panel, wondering whether it was “waiting for a third Covid wave” to conduct the elections. Maintaining that the pandemic has eased considerably, Ray said the situation was conducive for holding the polls.

Bypolls are to be held for five vacant seats, and fresh elections to two others where polling was countermanded following the death of candidates.

The byelections are of critical importance to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who lost the assembly poll to BJP’S Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram.

“We will be meeting EC officials tomorrow (Thursday) in Delhi with the demand to hold pending elections and byelections to seven assembly segments. The assembly elections were held in eight phases when COVID was at an all-time high.but now the COVID situation has improved a lot. The EC is delaying the byelections. Is it waiting for the third wave? We want the by-polls to be conducted as early as possible,” Ray, TMC chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, said.

The Constitution allows a person to occupy a ministerial position only up to six months without getting elected to a state legislature or the two Houses of Parliament. It mandates that a minister who is not a member of legislature for six consecutive months shall cease to occupy the position at the expiration of that period. Banerjee needs to get elected to the assembly by November 4 to continue as the chief minister.