As Sagardighi in Murshidabad district votes on Monday to elect its new MLA after the death of incumbent TMC legislator Subrata Saha, the bypoll in the rural Assembly constituency in West Bengal has become a significant one with the BJP signalling an “opposition unity” at the booths. Subrata Saha, who had been winning the seat for the TMC since 2011, died last December, thereby necessitating the bypoll. For the ruling TMC, it's a prestige battle as the party has not lost a single bypoll since coming to power for the third time in the state two years ago. In the 2021 Assembly elections, the TMC candidate had secured more than 50 per cent of the total votes polled, whereas the BJP and the Congress-Left alliance had bagged 24 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively. The opposition parties – BJP and Congress backed by the CPI(M) – is, however, hoping to break the winning streak of the TMC to give it a psychological edge ahead of the crucial panchayat elections in the state. Just on the eve of voting, Leader of Opposition and senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday said that opposition parties “will fight shoulder-to-shoulder for democracy”. “We are keeping a close watch. There will be agents of the opposition in all 246 booths of Sagardighi Assembly constituency. We will fight shoulder-to-shoulder for democracy. We will not let Sagardighi vote become a farce of democracy like the panchayat vote. Everything will be done for it,” Adhikari said in a message to BJP polling agents. This time, the BJP has fielded Dilip Saha to take on TMC's Debashish Banerjee, a distant cousin of TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. In the 2021 Assembly polls, BJP's Kalpana Ghosh had lost to Subrata Saha by a record 50,206 votes. However, in the bypoll, Congress candidate and local beedi trader Bayron Biswas, who is being backed by the CPI(M), has emerged as the strongest opposition candidate in the three-cornered contest. With the Congress sensing to put up a strong fight against the TMC, the party's state unit chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was found camping in the district on Sunday despite the party's ongoing plenary session in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. “The minorities have realised that the TMC and the BJP are both sides of the same coin. The death of student leader Anish Khan and recent corruption cases where deserving candidates have been denied jobs as the posts were sold will have an impact on this bypoll,” Chowdhury, who has been crisscrossing the entire constituency, told PTI. The Congress had earlier complained to the Election Commission against Sagardighi Police Station officer-in-charge (OC) Abhijit Sarkar, leading to the latter's transfer. The Election Commission has appointed Nimai Ghosh in Sarkar's position. However, the BJP on Sunday accused Chief Electoral Officer Aziz Aftab of being the “CM's man”. "The OC's transfer was done on the behest of the Trinamool Congress. The CEO here is Aziz Aftab. He is Mamata Banerjee's man. We are keeping a close eye,” Adhikari claimed and alleged that “Murshidabad Superintendent of Police Bholanath Pandey is distributing RAF uniforms to Trinamool workers”. From Adhikari to party vice-president Dilip Ghosh, and state unit chief Sukanta Majumdar, several senior BJP leaders have carried out a whirlwind campaign in the constituency. “If the elections are free and fair, the BJP will win the seat by a record margin. The Sagardighi assembly by-poll will kick off the downfall of the TMC in future,” Adhikari had said earlier. The TMC, expressing confidence in winning the seat for the fourth consecutive time, had deputed party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and a host of other top leaders and ministers to campaign in the area. “In the bypoll, we must improve our margin further and expose the unholy opposition nexus of BJP, CPI (M) and Congress. I wish to tell everyone here that a vote for the Congress will strengthen the hand of the BJP and its designs to implement NRC in future,” Banerjee had said during a recent election campaign. His reference to NRC was a reminder of the violent protest the district had witnessed in December 2019 against the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Parliament. The recent IT raids on TMC MLA Jakir Hossain from the district have left the ruling party fuming, accusing it of using central agencies to threaten the party leaders ahead of the by-polls. However, in the last phase of the campaigning, the ruling TMC roped in several ministers and senior leaders also. A senior TMC leader told The Indian Express, “Our leadership first took it lightly and thought we will win, like any other bypoll. But later, they realised that it will not be a cakewalk as the CPI(M) are supporting the Congress candidate.” On Sunday, the TMC reacted to BJP's allegations, saying the opposition party was panicking in the face of losing the bypoll. "BJP will lose. That is why they are saying all this,” TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said. The constituency, known for its beedi industry, is also a cradle of migrant labourers, who venture out to various parts of the country in search of jobs. Apart from more than 60 per cent minority population, the rural seat also has around 18.5 per cent Scheduled Caste and 6.5 per cent Scheduled Tribe population. It has approximately 2.3 lakh voters. The Election Commission has deployed 30 companies of paramilitary forces. Every booth has been brought under CCTV surveillance and live webcasting has also been arranged. —With PTI Inputs
