Kolkata, April 10 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday cancelled the nomination of Trinamool Congress candidate from Krishnanagar (Uttar) Assembly constituency in Nadia district of West Bengal, Avinabha Bhattacharya, for the forthcoming two-phase Assembly elections in the state later this month.

Following the cancellation of Bhattacharya’s nomination, the Trinamool Congress veteran from the district, Somnath Dutta, who had already filed his nomination as the second candidate of the party on Thursday afternoon, is now the main party candidate from the Assembly constituency.

The Returning Officer for Krishnanagar (Uttar) Assembly constituency cancelled Bhattacharya’s nomination under Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, due to complications related to his having a business agreement with the West Bengal government.

As per the rules, a person cannot contest any election if they are directly involved in any government job or have business interests with any government.

In the case of Bhattacharya, the ECI’s observation had been that because of his involvement and business interests as a state government contractor, he could not file his nomination as a candidate for any election.

Bhattacharya termed the political development as unfortunate and said he will not act on the basis of the instructions given to him by his party leadership.

Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member from Krishnanagar, Mahua Moitra, also confirmed the development and said that Somnath Dutta would be the new candidate from Krishnanagar (Uttar) Assembly seat.

The Trinamool Congress, too, had sensed that something of this sort might happen with Bhattacharya and hence on the closing hours of filing nominations on Thursday, Somnath Dutta filed the nomination as the second candidate.

Now, with Bhattacharya’s nomination being cancelled, Dutta will be the Trinamool Congress candidate from Krishnanagar (Uttar).

The same incident took place in the case of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2024 during the party candidate for Birbhum Lok Sabha constituency in Birbhum district.

The nomination of former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and the BJP’s candidate from Birbhum Lok Sabha constituency, Debashis Dhar, was cancelled since he could not provide the ‘no dues’ certificate from the West Bengal government following his resignation from police service.

Following this, the BJP veteran from the district, Debtanu Bhattacharya, who had already filed his nomination as the second candidate of the party, was the new BJP candidate.

–IANS

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