Kolkata, April 10 – The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday cancelled the nomination of Avinabha Bhattacharya, a candidate from the Trinamool Congress in the Krishnanagar (Uttar) Assembly constituency in the Nadia district of West Bengal, for the upcoming two-phase state assembly elections later this month.
Following the cancellation of Bhattacharya's nomination, Somnath Dutta, a veteran of the Trinamool Congress from the district, who had already filed his nomination as the second candidate of the party on Thursday afternoon, is now the main party candidate for the Assembly constituency.
The Returning Officer for the Krishnanagar (Uttar) Assembly constituency cancelled Bhattacharya's nomination under Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, due to complications related to his having a business agreement with the West Bengal government.
According to the rules, a person cannot contest any election if they are directly involved in any government job or have business interests with any government.
In the case of Bhattacharya, the ECI had observed that, due to his involvement and business interests as a state government contractor, he could not file his nomination as a candidate for any election.
Bhattacharya described this development as unfortunate and said he would not act based on the instructions given to him by his party leadership.
Mahua Moitra, a Member of Parliament from Krishnanagar in the Trinamool Congress, also confirmed the development and stated that Somnath Dutta would be the new candidate from the Krishnanagar (Uttar) Assembly seat.
The Trinamool Congress had also anticipated that something like this might happen with Bhattacharya, and therefore, on the closing hours of filing nominations on Thursday, Somnath Dutta filed his nomination as the second candidate.
Now, with Bhattacharya's nomination being cancelled, Dutta will be the Trinamool Congress candidate from Krishnanagar (Uttar).
A similar incident occurred in the case of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2024, regarding the party candidate for the Birbhum Lok Sabha constituency in the Birbhum district.
The nomination of former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and the BJP's candidate from the Birbhum Lok Sabha constituency, Debashis Dhar, was cancelled since he could not provide the "no dues" certificate from the West Bengal government following his resignation from the police service.
Following this, Somnath Bhattacharya, a veteran of the BJP from the district, who had already filed his nomination as the second candidate of the party, became the new BJP candidate.