It is election season again in West Bengal, if only in the form of by-elections for a few seats.
The contest is for Asansol Lok Sabha and Ballygunge Assembly seat.
The state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has fielded two former Union ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Whereas Shatrugan Sinha Fighting for the Asansol parliamentary seat, Babul Supriyo is the Trinamool candidate from Ballygunge. By-elections will be held on these two seats on April 12.
Due to the death of TMC MLA Subrata Mukherjee, he had to contest from the Ballygunge assembly seat. And Babul Supriyowho was the BJP’s Asansol MP, resigned and went to Trinamool, leading to the by-election.
Observers say the fight for the Asansol seat should be particularly interesting. TMC has never won here. The constituency was a bastion of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which it held continuously since 1989, until singer-politician Supriyo snatched it up for the BJP in 2014 and won it again in 2019. Now it is in Trinamool, which has chosen it. Shatrughan Sinha for the seat. Analysts say the actor-politician, originally from Bihar, has a good chance of winning as the seat has nearly 40% non-Bengali voters.
Supriyo secured 51.16% votes for BJP here in 2019, winning by a margin of nearly 2 lakh votes.
In the state elections held last year, however, out of the seven assembly constituencies under the Asansol Lok Sabha seat, the BJP could win only two, while the TMC grabbed the rest.
In such a situation, Trinamool seems confident about winning the seat this time. national general secretary of the party Abhishek BanerjeeWho is also the nephew of TMC President and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, himself campaigned for Shatrughan Sinha and said, “This vote is not for election but for protest.”
The TMC, which is trying to position itself as the national alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, has specifically cited the issue of rising fuel prices as a weapon to fight for the two seats. Is raised.
The BJP has fielded its MLA from South Asansol, Agnimitra Paul, from the Lok Sabha seat. Left’s candidate is Partha Mukherjee.
Party leader Jiten Tiwari said, “People are unhappy with TMC – the way they behaved during municipal elections, the way Babul did not perform, it will affect voting.”
The BJP and other opposition parties have repeatedly accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of inciting violence against its leaders and workers, especially around elections.
The Union Home Ministry has deployed five additional companies of paramilitary forces in the electoral areas of Ballygunge and Asansol. Earlier 133 companies were sent.
The Ballygunge assembly seat has been a TMC stronghold for a long time. Late Subrata Mukherjee had won last year’s elections here with 70% of the votes.
This time the party’s candidate is Babul Supriyo. Observers say the competition should not be too tough for them. But some wards in Ballygunge are Muslim-dominated and the Left has fielded veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah’s niece Saira Shah Haleem, he points out. Keya Ghosh is the BJP candidate.
According to analysts, the Left is trying to grab minority votes and this may lose some of the Trinamool’s support. Moreover, some TMC workers are unhappy with Supriyo’s choice, as he had, recently, made several verbal attacks on the party and Mamata when he was in the BJP.
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