Kolkata, Sep 20 (PTI) The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC faction’s candidate for the Rejinagar bypoll, Rabiul Alam Chowdhury, on Sunday expressed confidence in winning the October 6 contest and said he would launch a door-to-door campaign to familiarise voters with the group’s new poll symbol.
Mired in a factional feud, the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of Trinamool Congress got the name ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ and ‘football player’ as its poll symbol, while its rival group led by Arup Roy got the name ‘Democratic Trinamool Congress’ ahead of the October 6 bypolls to two Assembly constituencies in West Bengal.
A day after announcing his withdrawal from the contest and retracting it within hours, Chowdhury expressed faith in Mamata Banerjee as the party’s leader.
“Didi is our leader. I am all set to fight the bypoll under her directive. Every worker of our camp considers Mamata Banerjee as their leader. We are confident of winning the bypoll with the ‘football player’ symbol,” he told reporters.
Chowdhury said he will start campaigning from Monday, with party workers going door to door, familiarising voters with the new poll symbol. “I hope police will provide security to each worker. Even if I campaign with 10 workers, we will emerge winner,” he said.
The Rejinagar Assembly bypoll has been necessitated by AJUP chief Humayun Kabir’s resignation from the seat as he opted to retain Nawda. The party has fielded Kabir’s son Golam Nabi Azad for the bypoll.
Azad’s candidature is significant because Kabir had won the Rejinagar seat in the 2026 Assembly elections by a margin of nearly 59,000 votes. His son’s entry into the poll fray allows the party to test its organisational strength in a constituency where Kabir has considerable sway and a sizeable minority support base.
The party, though, faced an electoral-symbol complication with the EC replacing its earlier allotted ‘whistle’ with ‘table’, amid the wider dispute over party symbols following the 2026 political realignment.
The poll panel has now officially allotted the ‘whistle’ symbol to Tamil Nadu CM Thalapathy Vijay’s political party TVK, a move slammed by Kabir as a “conspiracy”.
The BJP has fielded Sakharav Sarkar, a former Murshidabad district president, from Rejinagar and is seeking to expand the party’s footprint in a constituency where it finished second in the 2026 polls.
The Ritabrata Banerjee-led TMC faction has nominated Safiuzzaman Sheikh while the Congress has fielded Mohammad Abdullahil Kafi in this multi-pronged contest. The CPI(M) has offered a ticket to Syed Asad Ali. PTI SUS NSD
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