Mamata Banerjee's fate to be decided today as counting of votes for Bhabanipur bypoll begins

The winner of the battle between TMC chief and BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal will be decided after 21 rounds of counting.

File Photo (ANI)

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's fate will be decided today (October 3, 2021) as the counting of votes for the Bhabanipur bypolls has begun at 8 AM. The counting is being held in 21 rounds for the Bhabanipur constituency and will decide if the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo can retain her Chief Ministerial post or not. 

As per the Constitution, Mamata Banerjee, who lost to Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Suvendu Adhikari during the West Bengal Assembly elections in March and April this year, has to become a member of the state assembly within six months of her assuming office as Chief Minister. Now, she can retain her chair and can be elected to the West Bengal assembly if she wins the Bhabanipur bypolls. 

The seat was vacated by the West Bengal Agriculture Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay in May to pave the way for Banerjee to contest the bypoll.

Mamata Banerjee is contesting against BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal. 

West Bengal: Counting of votes begins for by-elections in Bhabanipur Assembly constituency; outside visuals from Sakhawat Memorial Govt Girls' High School counting centre pic.twitter.com/5so3lzD9pH

— ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2021

Apart from south Kolkata's Bhabanipur, the by-elections were also held for Jangipur and Samserganj assembly constituencies in the Murshidabad district. Bhabanipur assembly seat had seen a voter turnout of 57.09 per cent during voting on Thursday, while Samserganj recorded a voter turnout of 79.92 per cent and Jangipur witnessed 77.63 per cent voting.

As per the election commission, these three assembly constituencies have a total electorate of 6,97,164. 

This is to be noted that TMC had registered a landslide victory in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls and had won 213 of 294 seats.