"Waiting For 3rd Wave?" Trinamool Taunts Election Body Over Bypolls "Delay"

The Bengal Assembly by-elections are of critical importance to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who lost the assembly poll to BJP's Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram.

Voicing displeasure over the "delay" in holding elections to seven West Bengal assembly seats, crucial for Mamata Banerjee's uninterrupted continuance as the Chief Minister, the Trinamool said that a party delegation will meet the Election Commission on July 15 to press for it. Sukhendu Shekhar Ray, a senior leader of the state's ruling paty, also taunted the poll panel, wondering whether it was "waiting for a third Covid wave" to conduct the elections. Maintaining that the pandemic has eased considerably, Ray said the situation was conducive for holding the polls. Bypolls are to be held for five vacant seats, and fresh elections to two others where polling was countermanded following the death of candidates.