Kolkata: The results of the by-election in three Assembly constituencies, which will be announced on Thursday, will be an acid test for Trinamool Congress, BJP and the Congress-Left Front alliance, feel political experts.
The by-election was held in the Assembly constituencies of Karimpur, Kaliagunj and Kharagpur Sadar on Monday. Over 7.34 lakh voters were eligible to vote in 801 polling stations to choose their representatives from among 18 candidates, including three women.
The by-elections became necessary after two sitting MLAs, namely Mohua Moitra and Dilip Ghosh representing Karimpur and Kharagpur Sadar constituencies, respectively became MPs following the Lok Sabha election in 2019, while Pramatha Nath Ray, Congress MLA from Kaliagunj, died a few months ago.
In Kharagpur Sadar, Pradip Sarkar of Trinamool Congress is contesting against Premchand Jha of BJP and Chittaranjan Mondol of the Left Front-Congress alliance.
Whereas in Karimpur, Bimalendu Singha Roy of Trinamool Congress is fighting against Joyprakash Majumdar of BJP and Golam Rabbi of CPI(M).
In Kaliagunj, Trinamool's Tapan Debsingh is fighting against Kamal Chandra Sarkar of BJP and Dhitashri Ray of Congress.
The three seats where the by-election was held belonged to Trinamool Congress, BJP and Congress.
Karimpur is a Trinamool Congress stronghold. Though Mohua Moitra was elected from the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat, the lead of Trinamool in Karimpur segment was 14,000 in 2019.
The party leaders of Nadia district are confident of the victory of party nominee Bimalendu Singharoy. They said 'Didi ke bolo' has been very successful and it will have its impact on polling in all the three constituencies.
Political experts said it is to be seen whether the party
can use the emotions of the electorate to strengthen the vote bank.
In Kharagpur Sadar, BJP's Dilip Ghosh had won the Assembly seat by 4,500 votes in 2016. In the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, BJP's lead in the segment went up to 85,000 votes. This came despite Trinamool carrying out extensive development in Kharagpur town.
Lastly, the by-election in Kaliagunj is an acid test for the Congress-Left alliance. The alliance had become a disaster for the Left Front in the 2016 Assembly poll and the party got only 32 seats, their lowest tally since 1972, while Congress got 44 seats.
In 2019, there was no alliance between them and the Left Front could save the deposit of only one candidate out of 40 nominees in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.
In 2019, 22% of Left Front votes went in favour of BJP. Political experts feel that if the alliance fails to retain the vote bank, it will become clear that Trinamool and BJP are the two main parties to go to poll in the 2020 municipal election and the subsequent 2021 Assembly election.