The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress is facing its toughest challenge against the BJP in this Lok Sabha election as three of its 42 parliamentary constituencies poll on Thursday.
The BJP is hoping to make gains in the bitterly-fought state that saw frequent showdowns with the Trinamool in the run up to the elections. Lok Sabha seats of Jalpaiguri, Raiganj and Darjeeling – which is in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s kitty – will witness a fierce Trinamool-BJP contests as the central party is keen to expand its footprint in West Bengal, the third-largest state in the country in terms of Lok Sabha seats.
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The Trinamool Congress, which now wants to extend its dominance beyond West Bengal, recorded its best-ever performance in the last Lok Sabha election as it swept 34 of the 42 seats in the state decimating the Left in its victory march, while the BJP made impressive inroads winning two seats. The Congress won four seats and the CPI(M)-led Left Front managed to win only two seats in its worst-ever showing in a Lok Sabha election.
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One of several factors playing out in the polls is the controversial citizenship amendment bill that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre brought to give non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan Indian citizenship.
{{/usCountry}}One of several factors playing out in the polls is the controversial citizenship amendment bill that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre brought to give non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan Indian citizenship.
{{/usCountry}}Raju Bista, entrepreneur and managing director of a private company, is fighting from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, which comprises the hill towns of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong as well as the plains of Siliguri, has a sizeable Gorkha population. The BJP had won the Darjeeling seat in 2009 and 2014 with the support of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM).
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The Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) and a faction of GJM, the major local outfits that have carried out movements demanding a separate state Gorkhaland, offered support to Bista.
In Raiganj, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Md Salim is perhaps facing the toughest battle in the state.
Also read: Bengal’s key Left face on a sticky wicket amid four-cornered contest in Raiganj
The Trinamool Congress has fielded MLA and civic-body-chief Kanaia Lal Agarwal. The Congress has nominated Deepa Dasmunsi, former MP and wife of late Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, and the BJP has given the ticket to Deboshree Choudhury, one of its state unit’s general secretaries.
The parliamentary constituency of Jalpaiguri, once a bastion of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), is now under the eastern state’s ruling party.
Trinamool Congress’ Bijoy Chandra Barman will look to retain Jalpaiguri. He is pitted against the CPI(M) leader Baghirath Chandra Roy (CPI-M), Mani Kumar Darnal of the Congress and Jayanta Kumar Roy of the BJP.