Confident that West Bengal's political climate has undergone a sea change post-BJP's historic win in the Assembly elections, ending the Trinamool Congress rule of 15 years, local saffron party leaders believe that the Basirhat constituency is poised to elect a BJP MP for the first time.
Lotus party eyes Basirhat Lok Sabha seat after landslide victory in Assembly elections
Political circles are abuzz with speculation that the 'ousted' and ex-chief minister Mamata Banerjee might contest the Basirhat bypoll.
Some of her supporters view it as a relatively safe constituency because the Lok Sabha constituency has about 54 per cent Muslim voters. However, after SIR done; the Mamata Banerjee camp did not quite had a happy experience during assembly polls. The party was defeated in many unexpected assembly segments. The then all-powerful TMC supremo was herself humbled in Bhabanipur.
Moreover, what came as worse is the TMC has now splintered into three parts. Most importantly, with power gone; Mamata is hardly sure of her earlier vote garnering ability. But it is also a fact of life that she is desperate to get some elected position.
However, there are also indications that she remains uncertain about contesting from Basirhat following the Assembly poll results and the post-SIR electoral scenario.
The BJP obviously claims it is fully prepared.
"This is the right time for the by-election in Basirhat. This is the best time to defeat Mamata yet again if she contests. Over 50 per cent Muslim population does not matter as people including minorities know how much misguided they were," said a BJP source.
The way people have been chasing TMC leaders with the sloganeering 'chor chor'; it is obviously clear that earlier magic cannot be repeated. During the assembly polls --
Trinamool won five of the seven Assembly segments under the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency.
They are Baduria, Minakhan, Haroa, Basirhat Uttar and Basirhat Dakshin — largely due to its minority vote base.
The BJP could win the Sandeshkhali and Hingalganj.
But BJP leaders now say that the electoral landscape has changed a lot.
The demand for a bypoll in Basirhat was conveyed directly to state BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya when he went to Basirhat on June 25 to meet an ailing party veteran. In fact, Samik had contested the Basirhat Lok Sabha poll in 2014 and had finished third by getting only 18 percent of votes.
The Basirhat Lok Sabha seat fell vacant following the death of Trinamool Congress MP Haji Nurul Islam on September 25, 2024.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Haji Nurul Islam had defeated BJP candidate Rekha Patra by a margin of 3,33,547 votes, securing 52.76 per cent of the votes, while the BJP managed only 30.87 per cent despite the politically explosive Sandeshkhali episode.
No comments:
Post a Comment