Kolkata, July 6 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday announced that by-elections to the three vacant Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal will be held on July 24, with the results to be declared on the same day. 

The by-elections for the vacant seats have been necessitated by the resignations of three Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha members, namely Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik. They resigned from the party soon after the results of the West Bengal elections were declared earlier this year. The results dealt a crushing defeat to the Trinamool Congress.

As per the notification, the election notification will be issued on July 7; the last date for filing nominations will be July 14, and the scrutiny of the nominations will be on July 15. The last date for withdrawal of nominations will be on July 17, following which the polling, if any, will be held between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on July 24.

The counting of votes, if required, will be conducted the same day and the results will be declared. The entire process will be completed by July 27.

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy was the first to resign from the Rajya Sabha on June 8, followed by Sushmita Dev on June 10 and finally Chik Baraik on June 11.

After the resignation, Baraik was in praise of Chief Minister Subhendu Adhikari. On the other hand, Dev, who is an Assam-based politician, met Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Delhi.

Roy, on the other hand, reportedly met with the team of 20 rebel Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha members, who joined the virtually non-existent Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).

Incidentally, Roy was critical of the Trinamool Congress leadership long before the West Bengal assembly elections were conducted earlier this year. He gradually distanced himself from the party leadership, criticising the Mamata Banerjee-led administration over the ghastly rape and murder of a lady junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata in August 2024.

Thereafter, Roy was sidelined in the party, and finally he resigned from the Rajya Sabha last month.

As per the current numerical equation in the West Bengal assembly, the BJP nominees are likely to win all three seats. The BJP currently has 208 MLAs in the Assembly. In order to defeat a BJP nominee, an opposition candidate will have to get at least 70 votes.

Though officially, Trinamool Congress has a total of 80 legislators, 60 of them are in the “rebel but majority” faction led by expelled party legislator Ritabrata Banerjee, and the remaining 20 are with the “original but minority” faction, which is continuing with its allegiance towards Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee.

–IANS

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