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News Desk: Just 10 days after it won a record 77 seats in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly, its tally has reduced to 75 seats with two of its elected members resigning from the post of MLAs. Notably, the BJP has fielded four sitting MPs in the West Bengal polls which included Union Minister Babul Supriyo, Locket Chatterjee, Jagannath Sarkar and Nisith Pramanik. While Supriyo and Chatterjee had lost the election, Sarkar and Pramanik had managed to win the assembly polls.
Jagannath Sarkar and Nisith Pramanik were elected to the Bengal assembly from Santipur and Dinhata seat respectively. Since a leader cannot hold two constitutional posts simultaneously, they had the option to resign either from Parliament or from Assembly. The two MPs, therefore, today resigned from their respective seats and submitted their resignation to West Bengal Speaker Biman Banerjee.
“Taking an account of constitutional rules today met with speaker of West Bengal legislative Assembly and given my resignation from MLA membership of Dinhata Assembly, Coochbehar. I will continue my service and firm support for the people as Member of parliament as I was doing,” said Pramanik in a tweet.
It may be recalled that only 292 seats of the total 294 went to polls in Bengal. The elections to two seats were cancelled following the death of the candidates. On the other hand, late TMC leader Kajal Sinha who succumbed to COVID-19 had won from the Khardaha assembly seat a week before the declaration of the result. With the two elected members resigning from their seats, the Election Commission will have to hold bypolls on the five seats. If the TMC manages to win all five seats, its tally will reach 218 in the present assembly, much closer to the 221 as desired by Mamata Banerjee.
While the TMC has won 213 seats, the Congress-Left-ISF alliance had failed to open their account as they were completely routed in the polls. It was the first time since independence that the Left failed to win even a single seat in West Bengal. The by-polls will also be a chance for the Left to mark its return in the West Bengal assembly. The EC is yet to announce the date of the by-polls.
