Bengal Assembly bypolls: BJP pins hopes on Basirhat

This, largely explains why Mamata Banerjee has directed her leaders to ensure that BJP does not open its account by wining the Basirhat (South) seat. She has stationed several MPs, cabinet ministers, MLAs and above all a large contingent of party cadres to win the seat, wiping out the deficit it had in the Lok Sabha polls of nearly 30,000 votes in this assembly segment.

The Basirhat (South) assembly seat fell vacant after the demise of  MLA Narayan Mukherjee of CPI(M) who had won the seat for a record seven times.

Basirhat (South) again is one of the most communally-charged constituencies in Bengal and had witnessed a large number of communal flare-ups since the 2011 state assembly polls. As the Basirhat (South) state assembly segment has Hindu voters to the extent of 53% of the total electorate, all the contesting parties have put up Hindu candidates.

The contest though, is believed to be limited between Shamik Bhattacharya of BJP and Dibyendu Biswas of Trinamool Congress – a popular Kolkata premier league footballer who is also a local youth. There is an air of tension and security forces have been deployed in large numbers.

In the Chowringhee seat, Nayana Bandopadhyay — wife of Trinamool Congress Parliamentary party leader Sudip Bandopahyay — is pitted against Ritesh Tiwari of the BJP. The seat fell vacant after Sikha Mitra -– wife of Somen Mitra resigned from the Trinamool Congress after the Lok Sabha polls. Congress candidate Santosh Pathak is a strong candidate too, and might pull in substantial votes through his strong organizational network in this constituency.