Congress announces candidates for bypolls to 2 West Bengal assembly seats

Congress on Saturday announced the name of two candidates for the by-elections to three West Bengal legislative assembly seats which is scheduled to take place on November 25.

The bypolls will be held for Kaliaganj-SC, and Kharagpur Sardar, and  Karimpur assembly constituencies in West Bengal on November 25.  

Congress has selected Dhitashri Roy and Chittaranjan Mondol as their two candidates who will contest from Kaliaganj-SC, and Kharagpur Sardar constituencies respectively. The CPIM has entered into a 1:2 seat-sharing deal with the Congress and announced Gholam Rabbi as the candidate for Karimpur seat.

On Thursday, the Trinamool Congress announced its candidates for all three assembly seats. TMC nominated Pradip Sarkar, Tapan Deb Singha, and Bimalendu Singha Roy in Kharagpur Sadar, Kaliaganj, and Karimpur, respectively.

The Kaliaganj seat fell vacant after the death of the sitting Congress MLA Parmathanath Roy.

Kharagpur Sadar, and Karimpur seats fell vacant after the election of BJP's Dilip Ghosh and TMC's Mahua Moitra to their respective Lok Sabha constituencies. TMC's Mahua Moitra was elected from Krishnnanagar Lok Sabha seat and BJP's Dilip Ghosh was elected from Medinipur Lok Sabha constituency.     

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to announce its list of candidates for the bypolls.

The West Bengal Assembly bypolls will be the first election battle between the TMC and the BJP after the Lok Sabha elections.

In the Lok Sabha Elections, BJP won 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, challenging TMC's iron grip on Bengal.

The bypolls come in the aftermath of BJP's impressive run in the recent Maharashtra and Harayana Assembly polls which were conducted on October 21.