The RSP candidate from the Jangipur Assembly seat in Murshidabad, Pradip Nandy, succumbed to complications after testing positive for Covid-19 at the Behrampore Covid Hospital on Friday evening.
Nandy, who was 73, had been admitted to Jangipur subdivisional hospital on April 9 with symptoms of typhoid and had tested positive for Covid-19 on April 12. He was then shifted to Behrampore.
A lawyer, Nandy had been with the RSP since 1967 and would have been a Vidhan Sabha election candidate for the first time this year. The Sanjukta Morcha had ceded the Jangipur seat to the RSP as a part of their alliance.
Jangipur was to vote on April 26. However, under election norms, the seat will have a bypoll at a later date owing to the death of a legal candidate.
Nandy’s opponent, Trinamul MLA Zakir Hossain, who on February 17 was injured in a bomb blast in Murshidabad, is still admitted to the SSKM Hospital in Calcutta.