Asansol LS seat: Abhishek to participate in roadshow

Kolkata: Abhishek Banerjee, the TMC national general secretary, will take part in a roadshow to campaign for the party's nominee Shatrughan Sinha in the forthcoming by-election for Asansol Lok Sabha seat on Saturday.

The by-election will be held on April 12. The seat fell vacant after BJP MP Babul Supriyo left the party and joined Trinamool.

TMC has fielded the Bollywood star of yesteryear against BJP nominee Agnimitra Paul, the party's MLA from Asansol South constituency.

Babul was elected twice from Asansol seat in 2014 and 2019 on a BJP ticket. Over the years there has been a massive erosion in BJP's vote bank.

In 2021 Assembly election of the six constituencies that fall under the Asansol Lok Sabha seat, four are under Trinamool Congress. They are Ranigunj, Jamuria, Asansol North and Barboni. The BJP has two seats — Asansol South and Kulti.

In the recently held civic elections, out of 106 seats in Asansol Municipal Corporation, the TMC got 91 seats while BJP got seven, Congress and others got three seats each and the Left Front got two.

Trinamool has left no stone unturned to ensure victory of Sinha. Malay Ghatak, the state Law minister and Pradip Mazumdar are camping in the area. Rallies and door-to-door campaigns are being regularly held along with roadshows where Sinha is actively taking part.

The MLAs and local leaders are participating in door-to-door campaigns as well.

Abhishek Banerjee, while addressing a gathering on Thursday, had said that Sinha would win by two lakh votes. He had announced that he would take part in a roadshow on April 9.

Hectic arrangements are on to make the event a grand success. Apart from Trinamool Congress workers, members of Trinamool Youth Congress and Trinamool Chhatra Parishad will also take part in the rally. The campaign for the by-election will come to an end at 5 pm on Sunday.