Recent announcement by the Election Commission to conduct bypolls in West Bengal and Orissa.

The Election Commission on 4th of September held that the much-awaited bypolls in one assembly constituency of Odisha and three of West Bengal will take place on 30th September. This announcement has given an edge to shri Mamta Banerjee who was stuck in a legal limbo post 2021 West Bengal elections, when despite TMC staggering a whopping 213 seats out of 294, Mamta Banerjee lost at Nandigram to the present leader of opposition, Shubhendu Adhikari. The article concerned is 164(4) of the Constitution which states that: “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.”

Though she is not the first person to be examined on the anvil of article 164 of the Constitution of India. Previously, Yogi Adityanath was also not a member of the U.P assembly in 2017 but later was elected as an MLC. Acting as a real protector of representative democracy, in the year 1970, then Uttar Pradesh CM Tribhuvan Narayan Singh had lost a by-election, and due to the obligation of article 164, had to subsequently resign.

To remain as Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee has to win an Assembly seat by November 5. The elections to the three seats were adjourned after the death of candidates during 2021 elections in the state and later deferred in view of the second wave of COVID-19. The commission, in a statement, said the Chief Secretaries of Odisha and West Bengal informed it that the COVID-19 situation in their States was under control. To be precise the EC affirmed that the bypolls will be held at the Bhabanipur, Samserganj and Jangirpur constituencies in West Bengal and Pipli in Odisha. Further, the counting will be held on October 3rd.