Amid tight security, polling for the by-elections to the two Assembly segments, Chowringhee and Basirhat Dakshin, began this morning. "The polling in both the Assembly segments started at 7 am. So far everything is peaceful in both the constituencies," said Amitjyoti Bhattacharya, an election department official.
The fate of a total 14 candidates in the fray would be decided in the bye-elections, nine in the city's prestigious Chowringhee seat and five in the Basirhat Dakshin constituency in North 24-Parganas district bordering Bangladesh.
Chowringhee seat was won by Sikha Mitra of Trinamool Congress in the 2011 Assembly elections. The by-election was needed due to resignation of Mitra from the TMC. The Trinamool has fielded Nayna Bandyopadhyay, wife of party leader in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhyay, from the Chowringhee Assembly segment. The BJP, which has emerged as a major contender this time, has put up its state secretary and spokesman Ritesh Tiwari from the Chowringhee seat. Santosh Pathak is the Congress candidate and Faiyaz Ahmed Khan is the CPI(M) nominee from the seat.
In the Lok Sabha elections, Congress had taken lead of 1,500 votes from the Chowringhee Assembly segment under the Kolkata North Lok Sabha seat.
Basirhat Dakshin Assembly seat was won by CPI(M)'s Narayan Mukhopadhyay in 2011. The by-election was caused due to his death.
Like Chowringhee, the TMC, BJP, Congress and CPI(M) have fielded their candidates in the Basirhat Dakshin seat. Former footballer Dipendu Biswas is the Trinamool candidate while BJP has fielded Samik Bhattacharya, who had contested the last Lok Sabha elections on BJP ticket from Basirhat LS seat. BJP is keen on winning the Bashirhat Dakshin seat to open its account in the Bengal Assembly. Samik Bhattacharya led from this Assembly segment in the Lok Sabha elections by 30,000 votes, but lost to TMC's Idrish Ali. Asit Majumder and Mrinal Chakrabarty are contesting from Basirhat Dakshin as Congress and CPI(M) candidates respectively.
The Assembly bypoll is being regarded as an acid test for the ruling TMC in the backdrop of its MPs and functionaries being questioned and arrested by the CBI in connection with multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.
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