The electoral battle is back in West Bengal and though Mamata Banerjee holds an advantage of winning, the twisting politics of the Congress party has drawn national attention, putting more weight on the claims that the united opposition front is unlikely. Mamata Banerjee has won the recently-held assembly polls in the state and became the Chief Minister for the third consecutive term. However, she hadn't got elected directly to the assembly, rather formed the government with her party's majority mark in the assembly. 

In such a case, the constitution prescribes that the Chief Minister must be elected to the assembly within six months from the date of assuming the office to hold the post. As Mamata didn't win directly, she is now entering the race and will be contesting from the Bhabanipur constituency. The by-poll will be held on September 30 and though Mamata holds the edge of succeeding the race being the ruling party, the BJP has been campaigning to pour her a debacle. 

It's apparent that BJP and Mamata's Trinamool Congress are main rivals in West Bengal. However, the Congress party has been playing a twisting game in Bhabanipur as while it was expected that the Gandhis will decide to work for Mamata in the polls, the party has earlier announced that it will field the candidate in Bhabanipur and while it was expected to the four-front race, the Congress changed its mind within a day and withdrawn its candidacy in the race. 

On Monday, West Bengal Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is also the Lok Sabha leader for the party, has promised that the Congress will field the candidate in Bhabanipur against Mamata Banerjee. The announcement had come when the Congress party has been driving the operation of uniting all the opposition parties to take on the BJP in the 2024 polls. The decision of Congress to field the candidate against Mamata had attracted more light that their solidarity isn't feasible in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

When the Congress decision had met with the speculations that it will strengthen the BJP's momentum in the polls, the grand old party has on Tuesday made the 'U' turn and said that the party will not field its candidate against Mamata Banerjee. However, Congress will stay off from directly supporting Mamata in the race. Speaking to the reporters in Baharampur, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has said that the Congress will neither field any candidate against Mamata nor would campaign against the Chief Minister. Earlier, he claimed that the members of the West Bengal Congress unit had backed the party's decision of fielding the candidate in Bhabanipur. 

Chowdhury said, "Yesterday (Monday), we discussed the matter with the state leaders. A section of leaders had felt that we must contest at Bhabanipur and as the Chief, it was my duty to let the party high command know what the state committee feels. Accordingly, the All India Congress Committee has informed me that the Congress will not contest from Bhabanipur in the by-poll because we do not want to help the BJP by any means." He added that if Congress fields the candidate, it may go in favour of the BJP. 

In the 2021 assembly polls, Mamata Banerjee had contested in Nandigram against her friend-turned-foe Suvendu Adhikari. She had however lost the race, that had made the by-poll possible. Trinamool Congress party's Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay had won from Bhabanipur. He had vacated the seat as Mamata Banerjee has decided to contest from there to win and retain the Chief Minister's post.