Bypoll constituency watch: Acid test for all major candidates in three-cornered contest for Bengal’s Kaliganj

Kolkata, June 6 (IANS) The forthcoming three-cornered contest for the crucial bypoll for Kaliganj Assembly constituency in West Bengal on June 18 will be an acid test for the contestants of all the major political parties, namely ruling Trinamool Congress, Opposition BJP and the Left Front-supported Congress.

For Trinamool Congress candidate Alifa Ahmed, the target is to exceed the winning margin of 46,987 votes achieved in 2021 by her father and ruling party legislator from Kaliganj, late Nasiruddin Ahmed, whose sudden demise in February this year has necessitated the bypoll for the constituency.

Alifa Ahmed is banking mainly on the popularity of her deceased father among the people of the constituency, a sympathy wave and consolidation of the minority votes in her favour, to achieve her target.

However, Trinamool Congress insiders admit that exceeding the 2021 winning margin will not be an easy task amid multiple controversies in the state, including the loss of jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff in state-run schools and pending Dearness Allowance dues to government employees.

For the BJP candidate Ashish Ghosh, the challenge is to transfer the growing grievances of the people on these issues in his favour. His strong points are his organisational abilities as well as his clean and son-of-the-soil image.

For Congress candidate Kabil Uddin Shaikh, the target is to ensure the consolidation of the dedicated vote banks of the Congress and the Left Front in Kaliganj.

At one point in time, Congress had a substantial support base at Kaliganj, with their candidates getting elected several times from there even during the previous Left Front rule.

Like Ghosh, Kabil Uddin Shaikh, too, has a clean and son-of-the-soil image in Kaliganj.

Political observers state that the fate of the candidates at Kaliganj is decided by the pattern of voting of the minority electorate, which comprises around 60 per cent of the total voters in the constituency.

“If the consolidation of the minority votes goes in favour of Trinamool Congress as it happened in 2021, then the clean sweep of the ruling party candidate is guaranteed. But in case, Kabil Uddin Shaikh, who is also a minority candidate, can make a substantial dent in the minority vote bank, then there are reasons for concern for the Trinamool Congress candidate,” said a city-based political observer.

Nasiruddin Ahmed got elected for the first time from Kaliganj in the 2011 West Bengal elections, which marked the end of the 34-year Left Front rule in West Bengal and the beginning of the Mamata Banerjee-led and Trinamool Congress-ruled regime.

However, he was defeated by the Congress’ Hasanuzzaman Sheikh in the 2016 elections. After being out of the corridors of power for five years, Ahmed again got elected in the 2021 Assembly polls.

Before 2011 and since 1977, which marked the beginning of the 34-year-old Left Front regime, Kaliganj had witnessed frequent changes in voting results with the contests being concentrated between Left Front ally Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the Congress.

The Election Commission of India has decided to deploy 20 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces for the Kaliganj bypoll.

–IANS

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