TMC slams EC for not announcing Basirhat bypolls, calls it 'delaying tactic'

New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Tuesday slammed the Election Commission for not announcing the dates of the bypoll in West Bengal’s Basirhat, alleging the poll panel was deploying a “delaying tactic” at the behest of the BJP.

The seat fell vacant after the death of the party MP SK Nurul Islam due to cancer on September 25 at the age of 61.

On Monday, the Election Commission announced dates for assembly polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, and by-elections to 47 assembly seats and the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat.

The bypolls to the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal and Milkipur in Uttar Pradesh were not announced as election petitions are pending for the two seats.

A senior TMC leader called it a “delaying tactic” and said the party would have easily won the seat.

“The Election Petition filed for Basirhat is a got up match between BJP and the EC to delay the bypoll. Trinamool would have won easily hence it has not been announced,” said a senior TMC leader.

Basirhat witnessed a bitter fight between the TMC and BJP in the recent Lok Sabha polls as the BJP made the alleged sexual assault of women in Sandeshkhali, one of the seven assembly constituencies here, a major poll issue.

BJP’s candidate Rekha Patra, however, lost to Islam with a margin of over three lakh votes. Patra later filed an election petition in the Calcutta High Court which remains pending.

Asked about the development, TMC Parliamentary Party leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien in a brief reply, took a jibe at the poll panel and said, “I heard EC is shifting their office to BJP HQs!” CEC Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday said that bypolls for Basirhat and Milkipur are not being announced as election petitions are pending on the two seats.

EC sources later clarified that since the winning candidate in Basirhat has died, the bypoll will be held after the Calcutta High Court closes the case as it has become infructuous.