BJP announces names of candidates for bypolls in 6 Assembly seats of West Bengal

Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced the names of six candidates for bypolls to six Assembly seats of West Bengal.

The party nominee from Darjeeling will be Neeraj Tamang Zimba, from Bhatpara will be Pawan Kumar Singh, Dr Samayroop Mandal from Islampur, Jual Murmu from Habibpur, Sanat Mandal from Kandi and Anupam Mandal from Nowda.

The Bhatpara assembly seat fell vacant after the sitting Arjun Singh quit Trinamool Congress (TMC) to join BJP. He is a four-time TMC MLA from Bhatpara. However, he joined BJP in March as he was denied ticket to contest the Lok Sabha election from Barrackpore.

Arjun Singh is now BJP candidate from Barrackpore and has been fielded against former Railway Minister and senior TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi.

Meanwhile, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has named Saradha scam accused Madan Mitra as the party's candidate for the bypolls to Bhatpara assembly seat against Pawan Kumar Singh. 

The bypolls to the assembly seats will be held on May 19, which is also the last date of the seven-phase national election. 

Counting of votes will take place on May 23, along with the counting of the Parliamentary election.