In three of the four Assembly constituencies, BJP MLAs had joined the ruling TMC and unsuccessfully contested the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections. These seats are Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagdah.

In the first segment, BJP MLA Krishna Kalyani joined the TMC but lost the Lok Sabha polls for the Raiganj seat to BJP candidate Kartik Paul.

Biswajit Das had quit the TMC to join the BJP ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections. After being elected from Bagdah, however, he returned to the TMC. In the Lok Sabha elections, he was defeated by the BJP’s Shantanu Thakur in the Bongaon constituency.

Just before the Lok Sabha elections, another BJP MLA, Mukut Mani Adhikari, joined the TMC and was fielded as the candidate for the Ranaghat seat, but he lost to the BJP’s sitting MP, Jagannath Sarkar.

The fourth Assembly bypoll will be held for the Maniktala seat, which fell vacant after the demise of TMC veteran and minister Sadhan Pandey.

As per the votes polled in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP was ahead of its rivals in the first three Assembly segments while the TMC was ahead in Maniktala but by only 3,500 votes.

Nominations for these four Assembly seats will be accepted from June 14.