Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday held a meeting with a section of north Calcutta Trinamool Congress leaders and hinted at fielding Supti Pande, wife of former consumer affairs minister Sadhan Pande, from Maniktala, one of the four Assembly segments where bypolls would be held on July 10.

The Election Commission of India on Monday announced the bypolls in four Assembly segments — Ranaghat Dakshin in Nadia, Raiganj in North Dinajpur, Bagdah in North 24-Parganas and Maniktala — on July 10.

A source said senior Trinamool leaders like Kunal Ghosh, Calcutta deputy mayor Atin Ghosh, mayoral council member Swapan Samaddar and councillors of the Maniktala area were present in the meeting at the state secretariat, where Mamata said she could nominate Supti Pande — who called on Mamata on Tuesday— from the north Calcutta Assembly segment.

"Didi mentioned in the meeting that Supti Pande could be nominated from Maniktala. However, her name will be finalised when the candidates for the three other Assembly segments are announced. In the meeting with leaders and councillors, she directed them to ensure the candidate's victory by fighting unitedly," said a senior Trinamool leader.

The election in Maniktala, pending since Sadhan Pande's demise in 2022, has been delayed for two years following an election case filed by rival candidate Kalyan Chaubey of the BJP. A source said the court recently dismissed the case and allowed the election in Maniktala.

The byelections in the other three assembly segments became necessary as the respective MLAs resigned to contest the Lok Sabha polls. They were all defeated. While Bagdah MLA Biswajit Das contested from the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat, Ranaghat Dakshin's Mukut Mani Mitra and Raiganj's Krishna Kalyani contested from the Ranaghat and Raiganj Lok Sabha constituencies, respectively.

The trio had won the 2021 assembly elections on BJP tickets and changed their political allegiances before contesting the general election as Trinamool nominees.

The BJP secured handsome leads in at least three of the four Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha polls.

While the BJP got a lead of 46,663 votes in the Raiganj Assembly segment, the party was ahead of the TMC in Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagdah Assembly seats by 36,936 and 20,614 votes, respectively.

Although the TMC won Maniktala in the 2021 Assembly elections by a margin of 20,238 votes, in the recent Lok Sabha polls, the BJP narrowed the gap, as the ruling party's lead in the Kolkata Uttar seat was only 3,575 votes.

A TMC leader said initially, there was a buzz that the party could field Shreya Pande, daughter of the former minister, from Maniktala, but Mamata dropped her name following objections from local councillors and leaders. A source said Mamata also instructed the leaders to keep Shreya off the election campaign.

On Monday, Mamata met Beleghata MLA Paresh Paul, an important leader from north Calcutta, to discuss the selection of the candidate for the Maniktala bypoll. During the meeting, Mamata spotted Paul unwell and directed him to get admitted to a hospital immediately.