After Nandigram, TMC's Rejinagar candidate to withdraw from bypoll in fresh setback for Mamata

Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) suffered another major political jolt on Saturday as Rabiul Alam Chowdhury, the party's candidate for the Rejinagar by-election, decided to withdraw his nomination.

This setback came just a day after TMC's Nandigram candidate, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, also pulled out of the race.

Chowdhury has announced his decision to withdraw his candidature, citing the primary reason as the failure to secure the Trinamool Congress party symbol—the ‘Twin Flowers’, news agency ANI reported.

Also Read | Nandigram bypoll: TMC’s Mamata camp candidate withdraws nomination day after meeting Suvendu

Assembly bypolls to Nandigram in East Medinipur district and Rejinagar in Murshidabad district are scheduled for October 6, with vote counting on October 9.

Also Read | ‘But why now?’ Mamata questions arrest of Congress’ Nandigram bypoll candidate, calls it ‘BJP's vendetta politics’

However, the Nandigram bypoll has taken a dramatic turn as Mamata Banerjee's candidate Sanchita Pradhan Dey withdrew from the race, prompting the former West Bengal CM to back Congress nominee Milan Pradhan, who was arrested later in a two-decade-old case.

Leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, in a post on X, claimed on Friday that Pradhan's arrest was "no coincidence," but rather politically motivated.

“The arrest of Congress candidate Milan Pradhan for the Nandigram by-election is no coincidence—it is political revenge, the murder of democracy. The BJP has no faith in fair elections—that's why it wants to cling to power sometimes through vote theft, sometimes through stealing governments, and sometimes through stealing parties,” Gandhi said.

"They don't want to contest elections; they want to end the electoral fight altogether. The Congress will neither fear nor bow down. We will fight—and we will win," he added in the post.

On the other hand, Pradhan Dey had met chief minister Suvendu Adhikari along with her husband Satyajit before withdrawing her nomination, a day ahead of the deadline, news agency PTI reported.

Also Read | Mamata Banerjee moves Supreme Court against ECI freeze on TMC symbol

Mamata Banerjee has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission's decision to freeze the Trinamool Congress' name and party symbol amid a dispute between two rival factions of the TMC.

In her petition filed before the SC on Friday, the ex-CM challenged the poll panel’s interim order passed on Thursday, freezing the original party symbol and asking both factions to choose a name and symbol of their choice, as HT reported earlier .