Counting of votes in West Bengal’s Bhabanipur seat will take place on Sunday, the day on which the fate of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be decided. The Bhabanipur assembly constituency registered over 57 per cent polling during Thursday’s by-election, a senior Election Commission official said.
The Election Commission will begin counting of votes at 8am and the results are usually clear based on trends by the afternoon. There will be 21 rounds of counting of votes in the Bhabanipur constituency.
History of Bhabanipur
Bhabanipur is an assembly constituency in West Bengal’s capital city Kolkata.
The Bhabanipur constituency, which was formed in 2011 after delimitation, has been a stronghold of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) since its inception. Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence falls under this constituency.
According to Election Commission’s statistics, the TMC won the 2011 West Bengal assembly elections on 184 seats and ended the 34-year-old Left Front rule.
At that time, Banerjee had not contested the polls. TMC MLA and then minister Subrata Bakshi had quit the seat to make way for Banerjee, who had taken oath as the chief minister. Then, Banerjee was seeking her maiden entry to the state assembly. She managed to save her CM chair as she won the bypolls.
Similarly, this year too, Banerjee will have to win Bhabanipur seat to retain the CM post.
Candidates in Fray
1. Mamata Banerjee: Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister retained the Bhabanipur seat in the 2016 assembly polls. This year too, she will have to win the seat to continue as CM.
2. Priyanka Tibrewal: BJP fielded Priyanka Tibrewal, a 41-year-old lawyer and vice-president of the party’s youth wing in West Bengal, was one of the petitioners and party’s counsel in the West Bengal post-poll violence cases in the Calcutta High Court.
3. Srijib Biswas: The Left Front fielded Srijib Biswas to fight against Banerjee and Tibrewal.
TMC, BJP Clash on Voting Day
Sporadic incidents of scuffles between the BJP and TMC supporters were reported from some areas of the Bhabanipur constituency on the voting day. A minor scuffle between supporters of the TMC and BJP was reported outside a booth in Bhabanipur over allegations that the ruling party was bringing fake voters inside the polling centre. Security forces brought the situation under control.
The TMC also registered a complaint with the EC, accusing Tibrewal of moving with an entourage of 20 cars and intimidating voters, a charge denied by her.
The BJP later alleged that its polling agents were not allowed entry inside several booths. Hakim said such claims were politically motivated.
In another incident, BJP leader Kalyan Chaubey’s car was allegedly ransacked on Sarat Bose Road. Incidentally, Chaubey was working as the election agent of Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular candidate Satadru Roy. The Kolkata Police submitted a report to the EC regarding the incident, following which the poll body rubbished the allegations of it being a political attack.
In Samserganj, bombs were hurled a few hours before voting started at 7 AM. The TMC had accused the Congress of carrying out the attack, a charge the grand old party dubbed as baseless. The Congress has demanded a re-poll in nine booths of Samserganj constituency.
The EC has received 97 complaints so far, out of which 91 has been quashed. Out of these 97 complaints, 85 were related to the Bhabanipur by-poll.
Security Arrangements
The Election Commission has arranged for a three-tier security system, called in 24 companies of central forces and have already deployed them at the counting centre. While the outer layer of security will be looked after by the state police alone, the next layer will also have the central forces. The inner layer will only have central police. The entire area will be under CCTV surveillance.
Officials will only be allowed pen and paper and only the returning officer and observer are allowed to use phones.
All the officials and those entering the counting centre will have to produce a Covid-19 negative certificate.
Why Bhabanipur is Crucial for Mamata Banerjee
In 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, Banerjee decided to move to Nandigram, where she faced defeat even though the TMC won 213 seats in the state. Banerjee lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari – a former TMC leader — by a margin of 1,956 votes. Adhikari, a former close aide of the TMC chief, is now the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly.
Bhabanipur seat was bagged by TMC’s Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who vacated the seat in May to make way for Banerjee to contest from the seat. She has to be elected to the West Bengal assembly by winning this bypoll before November 5 to retain the chair.
As per the rules of the Constitution of India, she has to become a member of the state assembly within six months of her assuming office as Chief Minister.
In the 2016 assembly polls, she retained the Bhabanipur seat.
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