In the upcoming bypolls for four Assembly seats in West Bengal on July 10, both the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the principal Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) face significant challenges.

The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is striving to maintain the dominance it displayed in the recent parliamentary elections, where it secured 29 out of 42 seats in the state. Conversely, the BJP hopes to rebound after its Lok Sabha seats tally dropped from 18 in 2019 to 12 in the recent elections.

The four Assembly constituencies up for bypolls are Ranaghat Dakshin in Nadia district, Bagdah in North 24 Parganas district, Raiganj in North Dinajpur district, and Maniktala in Kolkata. In the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP won the first three seats while the TMC claimed Maniktala. Despite the TMC’s usual advantage in bypolls, the BJP has a silver lining, having led in three of these constituencies during the Lok Sabha polls.

Following the 2021 Assembly polls, the BJP MLAs from Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagdah, and Raiganj defected to the TMC but retained their BJP status on paper. These defectors, who contested the Lok Sabha polls on TMC tickets and lost, are now back in the fray. The TMC has nominated Krishna Kalyani and Mukut Mani Adhikari for Raiganj and Ranaghat Dakshin, respectively, while Madhuparna Thakur will contest from Bagdah.

The Left Front, in alliance with the Congress, is also contesting these bypolls. The CPI(M) has fielded candidates in Ranaghat Dakshin and Maniktala, the All India Forward Bloc in Bagdah, and the Congress has nominated a senior leader for Raiganj.

Key Constituencies and Candidates:

Maniktala: The seat became vacant following the death of TMC MLA Sadhan Pandey. The TMC has nominated his wife, Supti Pandey, while the BJP has fielded Kalyan Chaubey, the All India Football Federation chief, who previously contested and lost against Sadhan Pandey in 2021.

Raiganj: In 2021, BJP’s Krishna Kalyani won but later defected to the TMC. He is again contesting for TMC, against BJP’s Manas Kumar Ghosh.

Bagdah: BJP’s Biswajit Das, who switched to the TMC, lost in the Lok Sabha polls. The TMC’s new candidate is Madhuparna Thakur, while the BJP has nominated Binay Kumar Biswas.

Ranaghat Dakshin: BJP’s Mukut Mani Adhikari, now with TMC, is contesting against BJP’s Manoj Kumar Biswas.

As campaigning wraps up, the TMC is confident of replicating its Lok Sabha success. TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar believes that the party’s momentum will continue into the bypolls. In contrast, the BJP, having experienced a decline in its Lok Sabha seats, is under pressure to prove its resilience. With a potential change in state leadership following the induction of Sukanta Majumdar into the Union Cabinet, the BJP faces a critical test in these bypolls.

“The people have seen the reign of terror unleashed by the TMC after the Lok Sabha polls. They are tired of witnessing post-poll violence repeatedly. We are hopeful that the people will vote against the TMC in the bypolls,” said Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.