With the CPI(M) central committee deciding against an alliance with the Congress on Monday’s by-elections to Uluberia lok Sabha constituency, Noapara Assembly seat are likely to throw up a direct contest between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP which has fast been coming up as a second force in Bengal displacing the left Front.
Heavy security have been made following spells of clashes between rival sides and alleged import of armed goons by the TMC, sources said.
Election in Uluberia was necessitated following the death sitting MP and former Union Minister Sultan Ahmed. Election in Noapara is being conducted following the demise of local Congress MlA Madhusudan Ghosh.
The BJP is the only outfit to have fielded a non-Muslim candidate, Anupam Muillick, who is pitted against TMC’s Sajda Begum, wife of late MP and CPI(M)'s Sabiruddin Molla. The Congress has fielded SK Madassar Hussein.
At Noapara, TMC’s Sunil Singh is against CPI(M) Gargi Chatterjee, BJP’s Sandip Banerjee and Congress' Goutam Bose.
With the possibility of Muslim votes getting split among the Opposition outfits, the saffron party is likely to reap a good harvest of the majority Hindu votes in Uluberia, experts say not ruling out, however, the ruling outfit rewriting history with rampant capturing of booths and rigging polls.
Uluberia proper, not far from Dhulagarh saw a severe riot complemented by the State Government’s blatant appeasement tactic in 2016 helping RSS make inroads into the left and Trinamool vote bank. The BJP seems to be banking on this change of the ground situation in bagging the second spot if not winning the elections, experts said.
The constituency has about 40 per cent Muslim vote and 60 per cent Hindu votes. Of the total votes, the TMC last time got 48 per cent votes while the left got 31 per cent votes. The BJP polled 11.5 per cent and the Congress got 5.71 per cent votes. In Noapara, the Congress and the left together polled 80,000 votes while the TMC got about 78,000 votes whereas the BJP got 24,000 votes.
The EC has deployed about 35 companies of Central forces in Uluberia which has about 1,700 booths in comparison to Noapara’s 180 booths.