Four-cornered contest confirmed in West Bengal by-elections

Kolkata, Oct 22 (IANS) A four-cornered contest in the by-polls for six Assembly constituencies in West Bengal is confirmed now with CPI-M having announced candidates for four out of six of those constituencies, late last night.

While the Left Front candidates will be contesting from Sitai in Cooch Behar district, Madarihat in Alipurduar district, Medinipur in West Midnapore district and Taldangra in Bankura district, the front leadership has decided to sacrifice Naihati in North 24 Parganas district for Dipankar Bhattacharya-led CPI-M-L,

At the same time, the Left front leadership is yet to announce the name of the party candidate from Haroa and talks are on with All India Secular Front (AISF) in case the latter filed any candidate from this minority-dominated constituency in North 24 Parganas district.

Meanwhile, the state Congress unit has sent a total of 17 names to the party's high command in New Delhi for finalising the names of the six candidates for these constituencies which are going for the by-polls.

Last week, BJP first announced the names of its candidates for the by-polls followed by Trinamool Congress.

As per the Left Front’s candidate list for the four constituencies, Arun Kumar Burma of All India Forward Bloc will contest from Sitai, Padam Oraon of Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) will contest from Madarihat, Manikuntal Khamrui of CPI will contest from Medinipur and Debkanti Mohanti of CPI-M will contest from Taldangra.

On the other hand, CPI-M-L has fielded Debojyoti Majumdar from Naihati.

Political observers feel that this four-cornered contest will definitely result in a division in the anti-incumbency votes, thus putting the ruling Trinamool Congress in an advantageous position from the beginning.

All these six constituencies are going for by-polls as their erstwhile MLAs are currently Lok Sabha members after getting elected in the general elections this year.

Barring Madarihat, which had an erstwhile BJP legislator, Trinamool Congress candidates got elected from the remaining five in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls.

The by-polls are extremely crucial for both Trinamool Congress and BJP considering it will conduct polls in the backdrop of the boiling situation in West Bengal amid the ghastly rape and murder of a lady junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises in August this year.