Tight security ahead of Bengal Assembly bypolls tomorrow

Kolkata, Nov 12 (IANS) Bypolls for six Assembly constituencies in West Bengal are scheduled for Wednesday with the polling to be conducted under blanket security coverage of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) deployment and 100 per cent webcasting.

The six Assembly constituencies that will be going for bypolls include Sitai in Cooch Behar district, Madarihat in Alipurduar, Taldangra in Bankura, Medinipur in West Midnapore district and Haroa and Naihati in North 24 Parganas district.

All the six constituencies are going for bypolls since the erstwhile legislators from there got elected as Lok Sabha members in the general elections this year. In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections barring Madarihat, where a BJP candidate got elected, Trinamool Congress candidates had won from the other five constituencies.

A total 108 companies of CAPF have been deployed for the bypolls for these six Assembly constituencies, a number substantially increased from the initial deployment of 89 companies.

The CAPF distribution includes 40 companies of Border Security Force (BSF), 29 companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 12 companies of Indo-Tibetan Police Force (ITBP), 14 companies of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and 13 companies of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

The counting will be on November 23.

This time there will be a four-cornered contest in all six Assembly constituencies between Trinamool Congress, BJP, Left Front and its allies and Congress, since there had been no seat-sharing arrangement between CPI-M-led Left Front and Congress that started since the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections.

While Left Front candidates are contesting from Sitai, Madarihat, Medinipur and Taldangra, they have sacrificed Haroa for All India Secular Front (AISF) and Naihati for Dipankara Bhattacharya-led CPI-M-L.

Political observers feel that the three-way division of Opposition votes is giving Trinamool Congress an extra edge in the by-elections. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the closing hours of the campaign process said that if her party candidates get elected from all the six Assembly constituencies, it will increase the pace of developmental activities in the state.