West Bengal: Mamata to contest by-election from Bhawanipore

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], May 21 (ANI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will contest by-election from the Bhawanipore Assembly seat, said a Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader on Friday.
Senior Trinamool Congress leader and party MLA Sovandeb Chatterjee resigned from the Bhawanipore seat on Friday.
"Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had won twice from Bhawanipore. All party leaders discussed and when I heard she wants to contest from here, I thought I should vacate my seat. There is no pressure. Nobody else has the courage to run the government. I spoke to her. It was her seat I was just protecting it," Chatterjee told mediapersons after his resignation.
West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee also confirmed Chatterjee's resignation and said that it was the TMC MLA's voluntary decision.

"I have enquired from him if he has resigned voluntarily and without coercion. I am satisfied and I have accepted his resignation," Speaker Biman Banerjee said.
Notably, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee contested the Assembly elections this year from the Nandigram constituency instead of her home-turf Bhawanipore. However, she lost in Nandigram to BJP's Suvendu Adhikari by a margin of 1,956 votes.
Mamata Banerjee, who sworn in as the West Bengal Chief Minister for the third consecutive term has to be elected as a member of the state Assembly within six months to continue to hold her post.
According to Article 164 (4) of the Indian Constitution, a minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the legislature of the state shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a minister. (ANI)