"Bhabanipur nijer meyekei chaay (Bhabanipur wants its own daughter)," said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Priyanka Tibrewal, on Friday, 10 September. Tibrewal is slated to contest from Bhabanipur against Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee in the West Bengal Assembly bypolls.
According to ANI, she added:
"I was born in Bhabanipur, Mamata (Banerjee) was not born in Bhabanipur."
She also reportedly hit out at the TMC over the bypolls, saying:
"The candidate opposite me (Mamata Banerjee) has lost an election, that's why a by-election is being held in Bhabanipur. They (TMC) had already won Bhabanipur but they don't care for democracy or for what people say."
Further, the BJP candidate added: "People had given mandate to someone from TMC over there but Mamata Banerjee decided to remove him as she wanted to contest," and lamented the "condition of the democracy here".
"They have no respect for people's thoughts and votes," Tibrewal said, according to ANI.
Banerjee had lost the assembly election in Nandigram earlier in 2021 to BJP's Suvendu Adhikari, who is now the Leader of Opposition in West Bengal.
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The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo has won the Bhabanipur seat twice in the previous elections. Banerjee will now need a victory against Tibrewal to continue as chief minister.
The bypoll for three West Bengal constituencies will be conducted on 30 September. Along with Bhabanipur, polls to the Samserganj and Jangipur seats, which were unable to go to poll in the assembly elections, will also be held.
BJP's Milan Ghosh will contest in the elections from the Samserganj constituency, while Sujit Das will contest from Jangipur, ANI reported.
Who Is Priyanka Tibrewal?
Priyanka Tibrewal is a lawyer by profession, and has appeared in the Supreme Court as well as the Kolkata High Court.
She has completed her bachelor's degree in law from University of Calcutta, and her MBA was from Assumption University of Thailand.
Tibrewal had joined the BJP in 2014, before which she had served as a legal adviser to BJP MP Babul Supriyo.
She presently serves as the vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, West Bengal.
Tibrewal had contested the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections from the Entally constituency. She had lost the seat to TMC's Swarna Kamal Saha.
(With inputs from ANI.)
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