Balurghat Lok Sabha Constituency witnesses neck-to-neck competition
BALURGHAT: The Balurghat Lok Sabha Constituency witnessed a neck-to-neck competition centered around the counting. All eyes were trained on the constituency as Sukanta Majumdar, BJP Bengal state president, trailed in some rounds and led in others.
According to the information provided by the Election Commission till the time of filing the copy, Sukanta Majumdar was leading by 9269 votes at the end of 17 rounds of counting with Biplab Mitra of the TMC trailing.
Counting started late on Tuesday owing to inclement weather and heavy rains. Trinamool Congress candidate Biplab Mitra started to lead from the first round. In the middle two to three rounds, Sukanta Majumdar was leading by a very small margin. At around 8:30 pm, Sukanta Majumdar claimed that he had won by 18,000 votes. “I have not received the winning certificate and the administration has communicated that I am leading by 10,000 votes,” stated Majumdar.
Trinamool Congress candidate Biplab Mitra said: “The process of counting is still on. I am hopeful that I will win.”
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Majumdar had won from Balurghat Constituency by 33555 votes. Trinamool Congress candidate Arpita Ghosh got 505099 votes in the election. Majumdar got 538654 votes. Left Front candidate Ranen Burman got 72906 votes. In this election, Trinamool Congress candidate Biplab Mitra’s campaign tool was Lakshmir Bhandar, overall development of the district, deprivation of the state by the Centre, withholding of money due to the state for 100 days by the Centre. Before the elections, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee came to Balurghat, Tapan, Harirampur and Kumarganj under Balurghat Lok Sabha Constituency to hold public meetings in support of Biplab Mitra. All India Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee came to Gangarampur to hold a public meeting.
On behalf of the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to campaign with the support of Home minister Amit Shah and several BJP heavyweights Sukanta Majumdar. Majumdar’s campaign tool was Railways. He promoted that because of him, the district residents got a new train from Balurghat to Delhi and from Balurghat to Kolkata. So all in all, the battle between these two heavyweight candidates was intense from the beginning.
