Kolkata: It would be clear in just a few hours from now whether the BJP has managed to dent the Trinamool Congress vote bank in some of the rural and semi-urban pockets of the state in the run-up to the crucial Panchayat polls in Bengal later this year.
The by-election results of Uluberia Lok Sabha and Noapara Assembly seats, where counting starts at 7 am, will be a litmus test for the BJP, which is desperately eyeing fresh pastures in the state in the upcoming rural polls as much as they have been prestige fights for the ruling TMC.
The death of two-time TMC MP Sultan Ahmed had left the Uluberia parliamentary seat in Howrah vacant, while the death of Congress MLA Madhusudan Ghose necessitated the Noapara Assembly by-poll in North 24 Parganas district.
Ghose had won the Noapara seat with Left support in 2016. This time, however, the Congress is on its own due to the changed political position of the Left, one that gave fresh boost to TMC’s hopes of wresting the constituency from opposition clutches.
Both Uluberia and Noapara witnessed a quadrangular contest with BJP emerging as the prime challenger to the TMC.
With nearly 40 percent minority community vote share, Uluberia has elected Muslim leaders for the past four decades. In keeping with that trend, Trinamool fielded Sultan Ahmed's widow, Sajda, from the constituency. The BJP responded by fielding its Howrah rural district president Anupam Mallik, after TMC’s Manju Basu backed out from contesting the polls on a BJP ticket.
A look at the winners of West Bengal and Rajasthan bypolls. (Image: News18 Creative)
The CPI(M)-led Left Front repeated Sabiruddin Mollah, who was trampled by over two lakh votes by Sultan Ahmed in 2014, while the Congress fielded S K Madassar Hossain Warsi from the seat.
At Noapara, the BJP nominated Sandip Banerjee against TMC’s Sunil Singh, a relative of local Trinamool heavyweight Arjun Singh.
The elections were held on January 29 amid allegations of sporadic violence and electoral malpractice against the TMC. The voter turnout at both places was over 75 per cent.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, TMC had won 34 out of the 44 parliamentary seats in Bengal. The Congress bagged four while the Left and BJP won two seats each. The TMC swept the 2016 Bengal state polls by winning 211 out of the 294 seats. The Congress was a distant second with 44 seats. The Left won 32 and the BJP six seats.
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