The Election Commission of India on Tuesday announced the bypoll to the Dhupguri Assembly seat which fell vacant on July 25 with the demise of incumbent BJP MLA Bishnupada Roy.

The byelection to the seat in Jalpaiguri district will be held on September 5, along with six Assembly constituencies in five states. The counting of votes will be held on September 8.

In the 2021 Assembly polls, Roy had won the Dhupguri seat which is reserved for Scheduled Caste by 4,355 votes. He had defeated Mitali Roy, then MLA of the Trinamul Congress.

Mahua Gope, the Jalpaiguri district Trinamul president, said the party would wrest back the Dhupguri seat in the bypoll.

“We had lost the seat in 2021 by a slender margin. We are confident of winning it back in the byelection. People in the Assembly constituency (which covers Dhupguri block and parts of Banarhat block) voted for us in large numbers in the panchayat elections last month. We believe they will support us in the bypoll as well,” said Gope.

Bapi Goswami, the district BJP president, said: “We will put in all efforts to retain the seat. Trinamul leaders might make tall claims but they should realise that the bypoll will not be conducted in the manner in which the rural polls were held. Their unethical tactics will not work this time.”