Bypolls: Campaigns end for four Assembly seats; elections on July 10

Kolkata: Campaigns for the bypolls in four Assembly constituencies — Maniktala, Bagdah, Ranaghat South and Raiganj ended on Monday. Bypolls will be held on July 10.

It is an acid test for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) organisational strength, particularly in Bagdah, Ranaghat South and Raiganj Assembly constituencies as the three Lok Sabha seats Bongaon, Ranaghat and Raiganj of which these Assembly seats are a part of, in their respective jurisdiction was won by the BJP in the recently concluded Parliamentary elections.

All three Assembly seats were won by BJP in the 2021 elections, but they switched to the TMC.

Raiganj’s Krishna Kalyani, Ranaghat’s Mukut Moni and Bagdah’s Biswajit Das unsuccessfully contested the recent Lok Sabha elections. Supti Pande who is contesting from the Maniktala seat in the by-elections on TMC ticket is eying a clean sweep thereby defending her late husband Sadhan Pande’s legacy. BJP leaders have claimed that they have an edge in the three Assembly seats. TMC too is hopeful of winning the four seats, as their party leaders have claimed.

The TMC said the party’s good results in the Lok Sabha polls will have an impact on the mid-term bypolls.

TMC has fielded its Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur’s daughter Madhuparna in Bagdah. Madhuparna is the cousin of BJP’s Union minister Shantanu Thakur.

After her loss in the Lok Sabha polls, Krishna Kalyani will again fight from Raiganj in the bypolls. In Ranaghat, too, the TMC has again fielded Mukut Moni. In the Lok Sabha polls, in Matua-dominated Bagdah, the BJP got a lead of more than 20,000 votes. In Ranaghat South, the BJP got a lead of more than 36,000 and in Raiganj, the margin was above 46,000.

The BJP has fielded local leader Manas Kumar Ghosh from Raiganj, Manoj Kumar Biswas from Ranaghat South and Binay Kumar Biswas

from Bagdah. They have fielded AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey in Maniktala.