Bengal Bypolls: BJP Better Placed in Three Assembly Seats, Trinamool in One

As West Bengal will be heading for the crucial bypolls to four Assembly constituencies on July 10, detailed statistics of the seat-wise results in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls show that BJP is comfortably ahead in three constituencies, while Trinamool Congress is marginally ahead in just one.

BJP is ahead in Raiganj constituency in North Dinajpur district, Bagda in North 24 Parganas and Ranaghat-Dakshin in Nadia. Trinamool Congress is better placed in Maniktala constituency in Kolkata.

As per the statistics of the Assembly-wise results in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, the gain margin of BJP was the maximum in Raiganj at 46,739, followed by Ranaghat-Dakshin at 35,936 and Bagda at 20,614.

However, the Assembly-wise gaining margin for Trinamool Congress at Maniktala in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls is just 3,575. What is even more of a concern for the ruling party is that this paltry gain margin at Maniktala is far lower compared to Trinamool Congress winning margin from that Assembly constituency of 20,238 just three years back in the 2021 Assembly polls.

This paltry gain margin at Maniktala has left Trinamool Congress leadership, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, worried and she had constituted a four-member committee to oversee the preparations for the bypolls there.

The bye-election at Maniktala has been necessitated by the demise of the erstwhile Trinamool Congress legislator from there Sadhan Pande.

In the other three constituencies, the erstwhile BJP legislators, namely Biswajit Das from Bagda, Dr Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat- Dakshin and Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, all of whom got elected in 2021, had to resign from Assembly as they contested Lok Sabha election as Trinamool Congress candidates.

Although all three of them got defeated this time, bypolls need to be conducted in these three Assembly constituencies from where they had resigned.

Trinamool Congress insiders said that it has been in-principally decided to field Sadhan Pande’s widow Supti Pande from Maniktala this time, although her name is yet to be officially announced.