How Mamta Banerjee can become CM despite of the defeat in Nandigram

Most of you all know that Trinamool Congress (TMC) won the legislative assembly election in West Bengal with a huge mandate of 213 seats. And the main opposition party BJP which emerged in last 6 months ,used all its central forces unethically to influence the mandate. But they failed to win even 100 seats there. By so far out of 294 seats in West Bengal 148 seats is needed for any party to form government, TMC wins 213 and  BJP wins 77 seats.

Mamta Banerjee's role in this huge victory

Mamta leads her party from the front. When the veterans such Suvendu Adhikari ,Mukul Roy ,Baishali Dalmiya as of her party deflected to BJP. Mamta determined to fight from the front she decided to fill her nominations from Nandigram constituency instead her present constituency at Bhawanipore. Nandigram was the home constituency of Suvendu Adhikari and political analyst believed that Mamta will get a tough competition here. And Mamta Banerjee loose by just 1736 votes.

This shows the character of the leader to lead from the front and give a confidence to the party members. She is portrayed as the face of opposition in national politics because she choose to face the toughest competition .Unlike Rahul Gandhi who in 2019 parliamentary election stand from two constituencies Amethi & Waynad .Amethi was the key constituency of Gandhi's from decades. As Rahul Gandhi fill nominations in Waynad constituency his own party workers get to demoralise that their president does not have trust on himself then how can Comgress (INC) win this election. And it is true as INC get 52 seats out of 543.

Can Mamata Banerjee remain chief minister despite losing Nandigram?

The short answer is: Yes, she can.
According to Article 164 (4) of the Indian Constitution, a minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the legislature of the state shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a minister.

This means that Mamata will have six months to get elected to the legislative assembly through a byelection. In case she fails to get re-elected within this stipulated period, she will have to step down as the chief minister.

There have been several instances of leaders who have been chief minister hopefuls despite losing from their constituencies or not contesting the polls.
In 2011 for instance, Mamata was a Lok Sabha member when her TMC first came to power in the state. She became the chief minister and later won the byelections from the Bhawanipore constituency in September that year.

Our Foreign Minister S. Jayshankar is a minister but he doesn't contest the Lok Sabha election he was initially choosen as the minister then within 6 months he has been elected as a menmber of Rajya Sabha. Similarly in states which have a legislative council, a candidate can also become the CM by getting elected as an MLC. 

In 2017, UP chief minister Yogi Adiyanath took oath as an MLC to continue on his post. He didn't contest the assembly elections that year. In december 2020, Uddhav Thackeray became a MLC and save his CM chair in Maharashtra. Another CM Nitish Kumar of Bihar is a MLC not MLA .

Bypoll election in Bengal  will be on 2 constituencies

Since Bengal doesn't have a legislative council, Mamata's only route to staying on as chief minister is through assembly bypolls. As out 294 constituencies 292 constituencies have taken part in this election. As candidates from Shamsherganj & Jangipur contituencies of Murshidabad district dies so bypoll election will happen on May 16,2021. And possibilities are there that Mamta can contest from any one of the constituency and get elected by there to become the CM of West Bengal.

But what if the CM loses the bypolls?

There have been instances of that too.In 2009, Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren lost the byelections from Tamar. This led to the imposition of President's Rule in the state.
However, such a scenario is quite rare.