No stay on Bhabanipur bypoll: Calcutta HC – Times of India

NEW DELHI: There will be no stay on the September 30 byelection to the Bhabanipur assembly consituency in Kolkata, the Calcutta High Court ruled on Tuesday.
The court had on Friday reserved judgment on a PIL questioning the Election Commission’s contention of a “constitutional exigency” for holding by-election to the Bhabanipur seat.
The petitioner had claimed that the EC had said in a press note that it decided to hold by-election to Bhabanipur constituency “considering the constitutional exigency and special request from State of West Bengal”.
He pleaded the commission cannot be doing so, and as such the court should interfere into the issue.
The EC, on its part, had said the petitioner is attempting to mischaracterise the meaning of the term constitutional exigency, maintaining that there can be no possibility of the same being construed as an influence on voters.
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is contesting the bypoll to continue as West Bengal chief minister, after she lost the May 2021 assembly elections from Nandigram.
TMC’s Sovandev Chattopadhyay had won the Bhabanipur seat, but has resigned to make way for Mamata.
BJP has fielded Priyanka Tibrewal against Banerjee.
The bypoll is to be held on September 30, while the counting will be on October 3.
There had been a few unsavoury incidents in the run-up to the bypolls.
BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh had said there is no point to hold the elections if the state administration under TMC-led government cannot conduct an unbiased election.
Ghosh, who was allegedly attacked by TMC workers while campaigning in Bhabanipur, said that the election must be held when the “Election Commission would be able to provide security to the candidates and voters of the Bhabanipur constituency. Till then the elections must stand cancelled”.
TMC on its part claimed that the incident involving Ghosh was “staged” to garner attention.
(With inputs from PTI)