As soon as the Election Commission (EC) on Saturday announced the dates for by-polls for three assembly constituencies in the state of West Bengal, AITC, the following day, announced that Mamata Banerjee will be their candidate from Bhabanipur.

The EC on Saturday ended all the speculation related to by-polls dates as they announced that elections will be held to the three constituencies- Bhabanipur, Samersganj, and Jangipur on September 30. TMC supremo and Cheif Minister Mamata Banerjee will start her campaign on September 8. The high-profile seat has been the bastion of Mamata Banerjee for a long time and now it is set for a fierce battle. 

Trinamool Congress further declared that Jakir Hossain and Amirul Islam will be the partyÂs candidates for Jangipur and Samersganj respectively. With the announcement of dates, the political mercury in the state has been high as all the parties have started to chalk out their plans.

Bhabanipur in South Kolkata has been the seat from where Mamata has been contesting from a long time until she chose to contest from Nandigram in the recently concluded state elections. She was defeated by BJPÂs Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram following which she needed to contest from another seat in order to remain in the chair of CM. Following her defeat, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Mamata BanerjeeÂs close confidant, vacated the seat of Bhabanipur in order to make a place for her party boss. 

As per reports, the grand old party-Congress is unlikely to field a candidate from the high-profile seat of Bhabanipur in order to make it easy for the TMC patriarch. This makes the contest more important as the battle is said to be between the ruling AITC and the principal opposition party; Bharatiya Janata Party.

Posters and hoardings of Mamata Banerjee have already started to come up in the constituency as soon as the dates of the by-polls were announced by the Election Commission. BJP hasnÂt declared its candidates till now but there are rumors doing the rounds. Tathagata Roy, Anirban Ganguly, Dinesh Trivedi are some of the names which are said to be the frontrunners for the seat. What makes the electoral battle so crucial is that MamataÂs victory margin in the seat has seen a sharp dip in the last election and moreover the seat has sufficient Gujarati and Marwari voters which BJP is eyeing upon.

The battle is said to be a high-profile contest and the counting of votes will take place on October 3. 

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