TMC leaders go door-to-door to campaign for Mamata
KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders and workers carried out door–to-door campaign on Sunday in favour of party supremo, Mamata Banerjee, for the Bhowanipore by-election.
The bypolls will be held on September 30. The seat fell vacant after Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who was elected from the constituency in the Assembly election, resigned.
TMC leader Firhad Hakim went to every household in ward 82. He distributed coloured pamphlets, highlighting various works taken up by the Mamata Banerjee government like Yuvashree, Kanyashree, Rupashree, Sishusathi, Lakshmir Bhandar, Swasthya Sathi, Student Credit Card and Duare Sarkar. In view of the pandemic, TMC is laying more stress on house-to-house campaigns.
In ward 72, TMC workers carried out campaigns on Shyamananda Road, Bakulbagan Road, Benoy Bose Road and Ramesh Mitra Road under the leadership of Sacchidananda Banerjee. There are eight KMC wards that fall under Bhowanipore Assembly constituency. These wards are 63, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 77 and 82. Except ward 77, which has CPI(M) coordinator, all the other wards are under Trinamool Congress.
BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal along with Dilip Ghosh, state BJP president, took part in 'Chaye pe Charcha.' There is strong resentment among the BJP workers of Bhowanipore, who felt that they have been neglected as the party is relying more on Arjun Singh, party's MP from Barrackpore.
Tibrewal, who had contested from Entally Assembly seat in 2021, lost to Trinamool Congress candidate by over 58,000 votes. Earlier, she had contested in KMC election in 2015 in ward 58 and lost. BJP leaders said their nominee Rudranil Ghosh was defeated by Sobhaneb Chattopadhyay by over 28,000 in the Assembly election. Heavy weight BJP leaders, including the union Home Minister Amit Shah, had campaigned for Ghosh. Shah had taken part in a road show in Bhowanipore.
CPI(M) has neither organisation nor manpower in Bhowanipore. Most of the party supporters have joined Forward Bloc. The Congress candidate got only 5277 votes in the Assembly election and lost his deposit.
Meanwhile, a war of words broke out between Hakim and Priyanka Tibrewal after the former said she was a young girl who had been pushed to fight against Mamata Banerjee in the September 30 by-election.
Tibrewal told mediapersons while out campaigning, "a young girl doesn't forever remain a young girl, a `bachha' (child). She grows up to face challenges."
