TMC begins campaigning for Mamata after EC announces by-poll date

TMC Saturday began campaigning for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who will contest from the prestigious Bhabanipur assembly seat in the city just hours after the Election Commission announced the date of by-election on September 30.TMC activists started painting poll grafitti as part of the campaign.

TMC Saturday began campaigning for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who will contest from the prestigious Bhabanipur assembly seat in the city just hours after the Election Commission announced the date of the by-election on September 30.

TMC activists started painting poll grafitti as part of the campaign. Slogans such as "Bhabanipur Nijer Ghorer Meyekei chai" (Bhabanipur wants her own daughter) were seen on the walls of buildings of the constituency. Banerjee is a resident of Bhabanipur and has contested from the seat in the past two state assembly elections since 2011. She had contested from Nandigram in the April-May assembly poll against BJP leader and her former protege Suvendu Adhikari and lost.

"We are thrilled that Didi will be back in the Bhabanipur seat. This is the area where she has grown up. This has been the base of her political activity," a local TMC leader said after kick starting the wall writing campaign. "For us, the challenge is not victory as we are confident about it. The challenge is to ensure Didi's win with a record margin," another TMC worker said.

Banerjee is fondly called "Didi" (elder sister) by her supporters. Several TMC activists came down to the streets and shouted slogans hailing Banerjee as soon as the news of the bypoll dates was flashed in various news channels. Banerjee, who led her party to a massive electoral triumph for a third successive term, is required to win a seat in the state assembly by November 5 in conformity with the constitutional provisions in order to continue as chief minister. The Constitution allows a non-member of a state legislature or Parliament to continue in a ministerial position for six months.

After her defeat in Nandigram, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, state cabinet minister and TMC MLA from Bhabanipur, vacated the seat to facilitate her election from there.

Banerjee had been elected to the Assembly after winning the by-poll in the seat months after her party stormed to power by ousting the 34-year-old Left Front regime in 2011. She was a six-term MP from the South Kolkata Lok Sabha seat, which has the Bhabanipur seat as one of its segments.