Campaign for by-polls draws to a close

Kolkata: The campaign for the by-elections in three Assembly constituencies which are going to be held on Monday ended on Saturday afternoon.

The by-elections will be held in Kharagpur Sadar, Karimpur and Kaliagunj.

In Kharagpur Sadar, Dilip Ghosh, state BJP president, who was the MLA in 2016 became an MP in 2019 following the Lok Sabha poll.

Mohua Moitra, MLA from Karimpur Assembly seat is also an MP now. The Kaliagunj seat became vacant when the sitting Congress MLA Pramatha Nath Ray died a few months ago.

In Kharagpur Sadar seat, Pradip Sardar of Trinamool Congress is contesting against Premchand Jha of BJP and Chittaranjan Mondol of Left Front Congress alliance.

Ghosh had defeated veteran Congress leader Gyan Singh Sohanpal in 2016 by around 4500 votes. Since then the seat which was a Congress bastion has tilted towards the BJP and the party has left no stones unturned to retain the seat.

Party heavy weights from Delhi have campaigned for Jha.

Trinamool leaders Suvendu Adhikari, Firhad Hakim, Sisir Adhikary, Soumen Mahapatra campaigned for Sarkar. On Friday, party MP Mimi Chakraborty took part in a road show.

Suvendu Adhikari said the party is all set to win the seat.

Bimalendu Singha Roy of Trinamool Congress is fighting against Joyprakash Mazumdar of BJP and Golam Rabbi of Left Congress alliance.

Bratya Basu has campaigned for Singha Roy while Somen Mitra, Biman Bose, Sujan Chakraborty have campaigned for the party nominee.

Karimpur is a Trinamool stronghold and the party is likely to retain the seat.

In Kaliagunj, Tapan Debsingh, Trinamool nominee is fighting against Kamal Chandra Sarkar of BJP and Dhitishri Ray of Congress.

Trinamool heavy weights including, Rajib Banerjee, Prabir Ghosal and Golam Rabbani have campaigned in favour of the party candidate.

The results will be out on November 28. The by-election will be an acid test for Trinamool Congress as it will show whether the party has been able to consolidate the vote bank by using Didi ke bolo which has received great response from the people.