TMC, BJP ready for bypoll battle in 4 Bengal assembly seats on July 10

Four assembly seats in West Bengal are going for bypolls on Wednesday with the BJP seeking to leverage its Lok Sabha election leads in three of these segments to boost morale and the TMC aiming to capitalise on its recent electoral success.

Three of the four constituencies - Maniktala in Kolkata, Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagdah in North 24 Parganas - are in south Bengal.

The BJP bagged Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagdah seats in the 2021 assembly polls.

The fourth, Raiganj, is in north Bengal's Uttar Dinajpur district and was won by the saffron camp in the last assembly elections.

The Maniktala seat was secured by the TMC in 2021 but it became vacant after former state minister Sadhan Pandey died in February 2022.

Despite the BJP winning the other three seats in 2021, the MLAs later switched to the TMC.

The Trinamool Congress nominated Supti Pandey, wife of the late party leader.

Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, Biswajit Das from Bagdah and Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat Dakshin resigned f