Partha debunks Arjun Singh’s ‘Bahubali’ myth, wins by over 64K votes
Kolkata: Partha Bhowmick, Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate from the Barrackpore Lok Sabha Constituency, scripted history by defeating his nearest challenger, BJP’s Arjun Singh by a margin of over 64,000 votes and debunked the latter’s ‘Bahubali’ myth.
Trinamool supremo, reacting to his victory said Bhowmick has won by his own credit. Without taking anyone’s name Banerjee said: “People don’t trust a person who frequently jumps ship.” Bhowmick, while celebrating with party followers, made an important declaration, stating that raids would be carried out at ‘Majdoor Bhawan’ (Arjun Singh’s mansion) since it was a nest of anti-social elements. As per the latest Election Commission data, Bhowmick got about 5,20,231 votes.
Besides other factors, switching sides regularly labelled a tag of “political opportunist” Singh, and ruined his prospects in Barrackpore.
On the other hand, TMC reaped benefits of the host of state government schemes, including ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ which emerged as a groundbreaking initiative for women.
Singh’s image as a political turncoat turned the tide in favour of the TMC candidate Bhowmick. Moreover, the electors in Barrackpore chose TMC this time to protest the “2019 post-poll violence perpetrated by Singh” after winning the seat last time. Several places in Barrackpore had witnessed post-poll violence after the 2019 Lok Sabha election result was out.
Around 16 per cent of the population in Barrackpore are Hindi-speaking jute mill workers who had earlier showered their allegiance to BJP’s Singh might have favoured the TMC candidate as the women members of the families greatly benefitted from the ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ scheme of the state government.
There was resentment among the jute mill workers as the Centre failed to deliver on promises to increase the usage of jute bags. A lower government demand against the annual projections of jute bags resulting in a short-term instability in mills’ operations and curtailment of the labour force might have cast a shadow on the BJP’s poll fortune in the jute belt. Arjun won the Barrackpore LS seat by a margin of 14,857 votes, trumping TMC’s Dinesh Trivedi with a 42.82 per cent vote share.
