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Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is going to contest by-poll from the Bhawanipore seat after TMC MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay resigned from the post won in the constituency.
It is important that Mamata Banerjee becomes a member of the legislative assembly for her to be able to retain her position as Chief Minister of the state.
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Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will contest the by-election from Bhawanipore, TMC sources had revealed.
Senior leader and MLA from Bhawanipore, Shobhan Dev Chattopadhyay has submitted his resignation from the post of MLA.
“I have enquired from him if he has resigned voluntarily and without coercion. I am satisfied, and I have accepted his resignation,” West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee told news agency ANI.
Speaking about the decision, Sovandeb Chatterjee said: “CM had won twice from Bhawanipore. All party leaders discussed and when I heard she wants to contest from here, I thought I should vacate my seat, there’s no pressure. Nobody else has the courage to run the government. I spoke to her. It was her seat I was just protecting it”.
Despite registering a major feat with TMC’s victory in the recently held assembly election, CM Mamata Banerjee, in a shocking turn of events, lost to former protege Suvendu Adhikari in the contest for Nandigram.
After reports emerged of Suvendu Adhikari trailing by 1,200 votes on the counting day, the tide turned in his favour by evening as he trumped TMC supremo by a margin of 1,953 votes.
CM Mamata had alleged that manipulations were done in Nandigram counting. She said accepting the verdict that “I will move the Court because I have information that after the declaration of results there were some manipulations done and I will reveal those.”
The following day Mamata Banerjee spoke to the media where she claimed to have received an SMS from someone stating that Returning Officer of Nandigram has written that “if he allows recounting then his life would be under threat”.
“For four hours server was down, Governor also congratulated me. Suddenly everything changed,” CM Mamata had said following the threat claim.
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How CM Mamata Can Remain In Top Post Despite Nandigram Loss
As per Articles 163 and 164 of the Constitution, a Chief Minister or a Council of Ministers needs to be a member of the legislative assembly.
“The chief minister is elected through a majority in the state legislative assembly. This is procedurally established by the vote of confidence in the legislative assembly, as suggested by the governor of the state who is the appointing authority,” it reads.
The Nandigram loss technically gives CM Mamata six months to get elected as a member of the legislative assembly. To necessitate this, an MLA from her party would have to give up his/her seat for bypolls to be conducted. This seat is usually considered to be a safe seat where the chances of winning is quite high. With this Mamata would stand a chance to emerge victorious from the seat and become a member of the 294-member West Bengal assembly.
“A Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the Legislature of the State shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister,” according to Article 164.
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