Over three lakh voters of Bhabanipur, a south Kolkata legislative constituency, will today seal the fate of Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, who is looking to enter the state Assembly before the end of her six-month period of Chief Ministership-without-being-an-MLA.
The over 12 hours of polling began around 7 am. The votes will be counted on October 3. The election was necessitated due to the resignation of Ms Banerjee’s party leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay to make way for her.
The Chief Minister has had to contest because, despite her own party’s tremendous victory in the Assembly polls held this April-May, she could not win from Nandigram. The BJP put up a tough fight there through its Suvendu Adhikari, a confidant-turned-foe of the Chief Minister.
The TMC chief had earlier said that being elected from her home seat was her “destiny”, according to a media report.