West Bengal assembly bypolls: BJP accuses TMC of threatening its workers

As many as 108 companies of central paramilitary forces have been deployed across the six seats in the state to ensure a peaceful election process.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of threatening its workers at several places as assembly bypolls at six seats began in West Bengal on Wednesday.

Voters wait for their turn at a polling booth in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal on Wednesday. (Photo from X)

As many as 108 companies of central paramilitary forces have been deployed across the six seats in the state to ensure a peaceful election process.

The six seats – Sitai (SC), Madarihat (ST), Naihati, Haroa, Midnapore and Taldangra – went to polls because the incumbent MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha earlier this year. All parties have fielded local candidates for the bypolls.

Five of these seats were won by the TMC in 2021, while the BJP bagged Madarihat.

There were no incidents of violence at these six seats till 9am, while the voter turnout was low in the first two hours of polling.

However, at Bhatpara in North 24 Parganas district, local TMC leader Ashok Shaw sustained injuries when some people allegedly hurled a crude bomb at him near a roadside tea stall. Locals alleged that the attackers were also TMC workers.

Since Bhatpara is located close to the Naihati assembly seat, BJP leader Shankudeb Panda alleged that the ruling party was trying to panic voters.

“We cannot say right now what happened,” Somnath Shyam, the TMC legislator from the local Jagatdal assembly seat, said.

Leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged that BJP workers were facing threats and intimidation at several places in the Haroa and Midnapore constituencies.

The Indian Secular Front (ISF), a new party with only one legislator in the state, also alleged that TMC workers were not letting its polling agents enter booths at three places in Haroa.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh called the charges baseless, and said, “Opposition parties have started making up stories right from the morning because they know that they will lose in all the seats.”

In north Bengal, TMC’s Sitai MLA Jagadish Chandra Basunia became the MP from Cooch Behar defeating the then Union minister of state for home affairs Nisith Pramanik, while BJP’s Madarihat MLA Manoj Tigga retained the Alipuarduar Lok Sabha seat which the saffron camp won in 2019.

In the south Bengal region, minister Partha Bhowmick, the MLA from Naihati, won the Barrackpore Lok Sabha election defeating BJP’s sitting MP Arjun Singh.

The TMC MLA from Midnapore, June Malia, won the Midnapore Lok Sabha seat defeating BJP’s Agnimitra Paul, who was a sitting MLA from West Burdwan district.

In Haroa, TMC MLA Sk Haji Nurul Islam was elected to the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat.

At Taldangra in Bankura district, local TMC MLA Arup Chakraborty defeated the then Union minister of state Subhas Sarkar at the Bankura Lok Sabha seat.

Neither the Congress nor the Left have any legislator in the 294-member West Bengal legislative assembly for the first time since Independence. BJP won 75 seats in 2019, while the TMC bagged 215.