Trinamool, BJP to face off in bypolls to four Assembly seats in West Bengal

Trinamool Congress and BJP face off in West Bengal bypolls, with shifting allegiances and strong campaigning strategies.

A month after the Lok Sabha election, the Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are set for an electoral face off in the bypolls to four Assembly seats in West Bengal, scheduled for July 10.

Three of the four constituencies going to the polls — Maniktala in Kolkata, Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagdah in North 24 Parganas — are located in south Bengal, while Raiganj is ]in north Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district.

While Trinamool emerged victorious in Maniktala in 2021, the seat fell vacant after the death of former Minister Sadhan Pandey in February 2022. BJP candidates bagged the other three seats in 2021 but later, MLAs Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, Biswajit Das from Bagdah and Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat Dakshin shifted their allegiance to the Trinamool Congress.

The Bagdah and Ranaghat Dakshin seats fell vacant after the MLAs resigned from their post to contest the Lok Sabha election. Mr. Kalyani, who lost to BJP’s Kartik Chandra Paul in the Lok Sabha polls, will be contesting from Raiganj Assembly constituency. Mr. Adhikari, who lost the Ranaghat Lok Sabha seat to BJP’s Jagannath Sarkar, will be contesting from the Ranaghat Dakshin Assembly constituency.

Trinamool Congress has fielded Madhuparna Takur, a member of the Matua Thakurbari, in the Matua-dominated constituency of Bagdah.

In Kolkata’s Makiktala constituency, the party has fielded Supti Pandey, wife of the late Trinamool MLA Sadhan Pandey.

The BJP has fielded the All India Football Federation president Kalyan Chaubey from the Maniktala constituency, Manas Kumar Ghosh from Raiganj, Manoj Kumar Biswas from Ranaghat Dakshin and Binay Kumar Biswas from Bagdah.