Bypoll in Bengal's Kaliganj seat acid test for CM Mamata Banerjee amid multiple controversies

Kolkata, May 25 (IANS) Kaliganj Assembly constituency in Nadia district of West Bengal is among the five Assembly constituencies that are scheduled to go for bypolls on June 19.

The counting will be on June 23. The other four constituencies that will go to the polls are Kadi and Visavdar in Gujarat, Ludhiana-West in Punjab, and Nilambur in Kerala.

The last date for making nominations is June 2, and the date for the scrutiny of nominations is June 3. The last date for the withdrawal of candidatures is June 5.

Bypolls for the Kaliganj Assembly constituency were necessitated following the sudden demise of its erstwhile Trinamool Congress legislator Nasiruddin Ahmed in February this year at the age of 70.

Since then, the chair of the legislator has been lying vacant. 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 Congress' Hasanazzamn 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 Indian National Congress.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, Ahmed got elected from Kaliganj by defeating the BJP’s Abhijit Ghosh by a margin of 46,987 votes. Congress’ Abdul Kasem came in the third position, securing just 25,076 votes.

The bypoll is perceived to be an acid test for the ruling Trinamool Congress and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee amid multiple controversies, including the loss of jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching jobs in state-run schools in the state and pending payment of dearness allowance dues to the state government employees and others.

At the same time, the bypoll is also a challenge for the opposition BJP, and it is to be seen whether they can transfer the growing grievances of people on these issues in their favour.

Earlier this month, on May 9, the final electoral list for Kaliganj was published. The final list featured a decrease of over 2,000 voters from the number in the 2021 Assembly polls. The final list was announced following a special summary revision by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal.

As per the final electoral list, the total number of voters in Kaliganj stands at 2,52,670.

--IANS

src/dpb