BJP confident of winning West Bengal by-elections

The BJP is confident of winning the Assembly by-elections to two seats, Nandigram and Rejinagar, polling to which would be held on October 6, Bengal Chief Minister Adhikari, who vacated the former seat after winning from the Bhawanipore constituency in Kolkata, defeating former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the April-May State elections, said.

While Nandigram is in East Midnapore district, Rejinagar is in Murshidabad district. Both the seats are differently important considering their political status and features. Adhikari has been the sitting MLA of Nandigram, the main battleground of Mamata Banerjee’s land movement that eventually catapulted her to power in 2011. In 2021, Adhikari won the seat, defeating Banerjee by a margin of little more than 1,900 votes, before becoming the Opposition Leader in the State Assembly. Adhikari, a son of the soil, is confident of winning this seat for the BJP by breaking all records.

“The question is not who wins Nandigram... Because it is for sure that the BJP will win it... The question is who bags the second position... The TMC or the breakaway section of the TMC or the Left that has suddenly risen to hog the opposition limelight... Both Nandigram and Rejinagar will help the BJP Government and the other political parties to rejig their strategies in future,” said Bishwanath Chakrabarty, a political analyst.

Rejinagar, on the other hand, is a Muslim-dominated seat and a traditional stronghold of the Congress and later on the Trinamool Congress before Kabir left that party to form his own. He won this seat in this year’s elections along with the Bharatpur seat. Rejinagar fell vacant after he chose to retain the other seat. The seat is important because it is likely to witness a keen contest between BJP, Congress, Left and Kabir’s party, and the results would decide whether the BJP can capitalise on the division of Muslim votes in the region.

Senior Bengal minister Dilip Ghosh said, “The way the Government has worked in the past four months, there is no doubt that the BJP will win by a huge margin... Rest assured, we are winning... Nandigram definitely and Rejinagar too... The people have reposed their faith in us by giving us such a huge mandate, and the Government is responding to it by taking all the decisions very confidently and effectively.”

The polls are to be held on October 6, and results will be declared on October 9. The last date for filing nominations is September 16, and withdrawal of nomination can be done till September 19.