Exuding confidence over her victory in the upcoming Bhabanipur bypolls, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Priyanka Tibrewal on Friday said that "Bhabanipur nijer meyekei chaay" (Bhabanipur wants its own daughter).
Speaking to ANI, Tibrewal said, "The candidate opposite me (Mamata Banerjee) has lost an election. That is why a by-election is being held in Bhabanipur. They (TMC) had already won Bhabanipur but they do not care for democracy or for what people say."
The BJP leader said she is the daughter of Bhabanipur as she was born and brought up there only. She gave the slogan "Bhabanipur nijer meyekei chaay" (Bhabanipur wants its own daughter) in similar lines to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's pre-assembly polls slogan "Bangla nijer meyekei chaay" (Bengal wants its own daughter).
"Bhabanipur nijer meyekei chaay. I was born in Bhabanipur, Mamata was not born in Bhabanipur. People had given the mandate to someone from TMC over there but Mamata Banerjee decided to remove him as she wanted to contest. That is the condition of democracy here. They have no respect for people's thoughts and votes," she added.
BJP has fielded Priyanka Tibrewal as its candidate in the upcoming Bhabanipur bypolls pitting her against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on September 30.
BJP announced Tibrewal's candidature on Friday through a notification undersigned by the party's general secretary Arun Singh.
A lawyer by profession, Tibrewal is the vice-president of the West Bengal unit of BJP Yuva Morcha. She is also the petitioner in the Calcutta High Court against the post-poll violence in the state. Notably, the High Court has ordered a CBI probe in violence in West Bengal after the Assembly elections.
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee filed her nomination for the by-polls to the Bhabanipur seat on Friday.
It is crucial for Mamata Banerjee, who became chief minister of the state for the third time after TMC's victory in Assembly elections, to win the Bhabanipur bypoll to retain her position. She had lost in Nandigram to her former aide Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP.
According to the schedule announced by the Election Commission of India, by-elections in Bhabanipur, Samserganj and Jangipur Assembly Constituencies in the state are scheduled on September 30. The counting of votes will be taken up on October 3.
The Bhabanipur Assembly seat was vacated by West Bengal Agriculture Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay in May, making way for Mamata Banerjee to contest.
Earlier on Monday, sources said the Indian National Congress is unlikely to field a candidate against the chief minister.
The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC registered a landslide victory in polls winning 213 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly. The BJP lost the polls but emerged as the second-largest party with 77 seats.
( With inputs from ANI )
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