The Trinamool Congress on Sunday announced the names of erstwhile BJP leaders Shatrughan Sinha and Babul Supriyo as candidates for bypolls to Asansol Lok Sabha seat and Ballygunge assembly seat respectively.

TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter to make the announcements

The Election Commission of India on Saturday announced the schedule of bypolls to one parliamentary constituency in West Bengal and four assembly constituencies in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and West Bengal.

The bypolls will be held on April 12 for the Asansol Lok Sabha seat and Ballygunge assembly seat in West Bengal. The three other assembly constituencies which will go to bypolls on the same date are Khairagarh in Chhattisgarh, Bochahan in Bihar, and Kolhapur North in Maharashtra.

The bypolls to Asansol parliamentary constituency were necessitated after former BJP leader Babul Supriyo vacated the seat as he quit the saffron party and joined Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in September last year.

Supriyo had won the Asansol seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by defeating Trinamool Congress candidate Moonmoon Sen.

However, he failed to win the Tollygunge seat in the 2021 assembly elections in Mar-Apr.

Later, he was stripped of his ministry in a cabinet reshuffle of the PM Narndra Modi government at the Centre.

The bypolls to the Ballygunge assembly seat will be held following the death of TMC MLA and cabinet minister in Mamata Banerjee government Subrata Mukherjee on November 4 last year.

According to the Election Commission’s notification, the last date of nomination is March 24 while the date of scrutiny of nominations is March 25.

The counting of votes will be held on April 16.

BJP reacts:

BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul was quick in targeting TMC over naming Sinha as the party candidate as she tweeted: “What is the CONNECTION of @ShatruganSinha with ASANSOL or BENGAL?? When our BJP workers came from BIHAR & UP to work for WB 2021 assembly elections ..you stamped them saying BOHIRAGOTO….OUTSIDERS What will you NOW call Mr BIHARIBABU??”