Raiganj Assembly bypoll on July 10; parties begin preps
Raiganj: With the announcement of the schedule for the Raiganj Assembly by-election, political parties are in a tizzy. The by-election in the Raiganj Assembly, located in the North Dinajpur district, will be held on July 10.
All political parties have already started chalking out their strategies for this. Sources stated that CPI(M) and Congress will continue with their alliance to fight in the by elections. Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP are in the process of selecting their candidate to take part in the fray.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, Krishna Kalyani of BJP won from Raiganj seat after defeating Kanaiyalal Agarwal of TMC with a margin of 20,748 votes. Krishna Kalyani got 79,775 votes and Kanaiyalal Agarwal of TMC received 59,027 votes while Mohit
Sengupta of Congress supported by CPI(M) acquired 17,198 votes.
After a few months Krishna Kalyani left the BJP and joined the TMC. This year, TMC selected Krishna Kalyani to contest from Raiganj Parliamentary seat. He had to resign from the post of MLA. He however faced defeat from Raiganj Parliamentary seat. Now the by-election will be held in Raiganj Assembly seat.
In the 2024 Parliamentary elections, Kartick Chandra Paul of BJP defeated Krishna Kalyani in the Raiganj Assembly segment with a margin of 46,739 votes. Kartic Chandra Paul got 93,402 votes and Krishna Kalyani received 46,663 while Ali Imran Ramz of Congress managed to get 14,477 votes from Raiganj Assembly segment this year.
Kanaiyalal Agarwal, president of North Dinajpur TMC committee, said: “Very soon we will send reports of the Raiganj Assembly segment to the state committee. The state committee will decide the TMC candidate for Raiganj Assembly seat.”
Basudev Sarkar, president of North Dinajpur BJP committee, said: “Our candidate in the Raiganj Assembly seat is yet to be selected. We started our work at booth level already.”
Anowarul Hoque, secretary of North Dinajpur CPI(M) committee, said: “We want an alliance with Congress to fight in Raiganj Assembly by-elections. On this issue we have to meet with Congress leaders.”
Mohit Sengupta, president of North Dinajpur Congress committee, said: “We also want an alliance with CPI(M). The decision will be framed in the joint meeting of both
the parties.”
