Bhabanipur bypolls to decide Mamata Banerjee’s fate in West Bengal, Counting begins
The much-awaited results of the Bhabanipur constituency in West Bengal will be out today where Mamata Banerjee is fighting to retain her position of Chief Minister against BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal, who is the Vice-President of the BJP’s youth wing in West Bengal.
As per the Election Commission, counting of votes for the Bhabanipur constituency will begin at 8 am and the results will be clear by afternoon. The counting will consist of a total of 21 rounds. The election for the Bhabanipur constituency took place on September 30 which saw a turnout of 53.32%.
On the day of voting, September 30, many incidents of clashes were reported from some areas of the Bhabanipur constituency. The EC had received 97 complaints out of which 91 have been quashed.
However, to maintain peace and quiet, for today, the Election Commission has arranged for a three-tier security system. The core layer consists of 24 companies of Central Forces that have already been deployed at the counting centres while other layers will consist of state police, central police and all the places will remain under CCTV surveillance.
Importance of the Bhabanipur Constituency:
The Bhabanipur constituency is an important seat for Mamata Banerjee since it has been a stronghold for the TMC since it was founded after its demarcation in 2011.
In 2011, after TMC won the assembly elections by 184 seats against the Left, it was Subrata Bakshi, a minister from TMC who had won the seat from Bhabanipur but had stepped down to make way for Mamata Banerjee who had simply managed to retain her seat as she won the by-polls.
For the unversed, Mamata Banerjee had decided to fight election from Nandigram in 2021. She won the assembly elections by 213 seats but lost the Nandigram seat opposite Suvendu Adhikari.
According to the constitution of India, one needs to become a member of the state assembly within six months of assuming office as Chief Minister. At the time, the Bhabanipur seat was secured by TMC’s Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who stepped down in May 2021 to make way for Mamata Banerjee to contest from the seat. Now, she needs to win this seat and be elected to the West Bengal assembly before November 5 to retain the chair.