West Bengal Bypoll: Mamata Banerjee's battle of prestige begins

Kolkata : The bypoll in West Bengal’s Bhabanipur assembly constituency on Thursday is nothing less than a prestige issue for CM Mamata Banerjee, who is presently not a MLA.

The Bhabanipur Assembly seat was vacated by the West Bengal Agriculture Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay in May, making way for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to contest from Bhabanipur seat as a move to continue to hold her post.

Bharatiya Janata Party's 41-year-old Priyanka Tibrewal has been pitched against the TMC supremo. On the other hand, CPI(M) has fielded Srijib Biswas, also a lawyer by profession in the Bhabanipur constituency.

The polling for the seat began at 7 AM; the counting of votes will be done on October 3.

The Election Commission has decided to deploy additional 20 companies of central forces, taking the total to 35 companies, only for the bypoll to the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency in Kolkata from where CM Mamata Banerjee is contesting.

There were reports that the TMC workers are threatening the voters and stopping them from contesting their vote in the election.

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