Kolkata, June 1 (PTI) West Bengal agriculture minister and veteran TMC leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay on Tuesday visited Khardah assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district, which fell vacant following the death of winning candidate Kajal Sinha.

He offered prayers at the centuries-old Shyam temple on the banks of river Hooghly.

Chattopadhyay later met Sinha's wife, and said, "Today on, she will be my sister. I told her that she can call me when she needs help."

The minister, who stepped down from the Bhabanipur assembly seat, days after trouncing his BJP rival Rudranil Ghosh by around 29,000 votes, is expected to file his nomination from Khardah, where bypoll is slated to be held sometime later this year, party sources said.

Chief Minister Banerjee, who has represented Bhabanipur in the past, chose to contest the recently held elections from Nandigram, but her former lieutenant and bete- noire Suvendu Adhikari emerged victorious from the seat.

She will have to get elected to the Assembly within three months of taking oath as the chief minister to retain the chair.

The deceased leader's life, after meeting Chattopadhyay during the day, said, "I will do all that is possible to ensure he wins by a huge margin from Khardah."

Sinha died due to COVID-19 on April 25.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)