Mamata Banerjee to contest from Bhabanipur, MLA Sobhandeb Chatterjee resigns

Trinamool Congress MLA from Bhabanipur, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay resigned from his seat on Friday, to make way for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's re-election to the West Bengal Assembly.

Mamata Banerjee had lost the recently-concluded West Bengal Assembly election from the Nandigram Assembly seat by a narrow margin to former aide-turned BJP leader Suvendhu Adhikari. Even as her party swept the polls by winning 213 out of 292 seats in the assembly, Mamata Banerjee lost by a mere margin of 1956 votes.

Despite the loss, Mamata Banerjee was elected as the leader of the Trinamool Congress legislature party and took oath as chief minister on May 5. As per the Constitutional provision in such cases, the TMC chief has six months to get re-elected to the assembly or she risks losing her CM post.

Despite his resignation as MLA, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay will stay on as the agriculture minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet.