Mamata to contest from Bhabanipur seat

Kolkata, Aug 19: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will contest from Bhabanipur Assembly seat in South Kolkata to get elected to the legislature.

Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee told PTI that state minister for PWD and Transport Subrata Bakshi, who had won from Bhabanipur seat, submitted his resignation today to enable the chief minister to contest from the constituency.

"Mr Bakshi has submitted his resignation to me today and this has been accepted," the Speaker said.

Mamata Banerjee is still the leader of Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha and as per the rules she could submit her resignation even after getting elected, Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy, who is now in Delhi, said.

Bhabanipur Assembly seat falls under the South Kolkata Lok Sabha constituency which has been represented by Mamata for long a time.

Mamata, who did not contest Assembly polls in May, this year, is required to get elected as a member of the state Assembly within six months.

She took oath as chief minister on May 20 heading a Trinamool Congress and Congress coalition government following her party's landslide victory in the polls.

Today's development put at rest speculation of the past few weeks that she was likely to contest from Behala East, which is represented by Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee.

Bakshi, a close aide of Banerjee and state Trinamool Congress president, had won from the Bhabanipur seat in this year's Asembly election defeating his nearest rival Narayan Jain by nearly 50,000 votes.

PTI