As three constituencies of West Bengal vote on Friday in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections, the school jobs “scam” is back in the spotlight following the Calcutta High Court’s order on Monday cancelling the appointment of over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff of government schools in the state. Among the three seats - Darjeeling, Raiganj, and Balurghat - the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has not won the last two, both bordering Bangladesh, since it came to power in the state in 2011. The BJP, on the other hand, had won all three seats in the last Lok Sabha elections. Darjeeling The BJP is focused on retaining Darjeeling for the fourth consecutive time, as challenger TMC hopes that the state government’s development work in the hills will tip the scales in its favour for the first time. TMC candidate Gopal Lama, who served as an officer on special duty (OSD) in the autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) for a long time, is expected to bring his knowledge of developing Darjeeling into play; and topping it with his campaign pitch that Mamata Banerjee is “the only chief minister who cares for the development of the hills”. Also, Lama is known to be close to GTA chairman Anit Thapa. Undermining sitting BJP MP Raju Bista's re-election campaign is rebel BJP MLA from Kurseong, Bishnuprasad Sharma, who is in the fray as an Independent. Bista, who has former GTA chairman and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader Bimal Gurung on his side, got a shot in his arm after local leader Binay Tamang publicly backed his candidature. Just three days before the vote, Binay, who joined the Congress from the TMC five months ago, publicly announced his support for Bista, citing his disapproval of party candidate Munish Tamang. This prompted Congress to take swift action against Binay who was expelled from the party for six years. However, Binay Tamang’s volte face has put the Congress candidate on the backfoot despite getting support from Hamro Party supremo Ajay Edwards and the Left Front, which is hopeful to pitch in with its pockets of voters in the foothills. Balurghat Balurghat is a prestige fight for the BJP, as its candidate and sitting MP Sukanta Majumder, is the party’s state unit president. His campaign pitch is his work as an MP in improving rail connectivity for Balurghat and Dakshin Dinajpur district. Against him, the TMC has fielded the party's district secretary Biplab Mitra, who is also a Cabinet minister in the state government . In 2019, Majumder had prevailed over Arpita Ghosh of the TMC by a small margin, at a time when intra-party clashes in the TMC's local unit were at a peak. This time, the TMC says the party is united in Balurghat. The BJP's line of attack includes the TMC's alleged “corruption, lawlessness and indecision” while acting against “criminal elements”. Sandeshkhali features prominently, with the BJP highlighting how "attempts were made to protect" the alleged perpetrator, Shajahan Sheikh, accused of sexual harassment and grabbing land. “We have brought prominent and visible development to Balurghat. That's why I feel people will again vote for us and the margin will increase this time,” says Majumder. Dismissing his claims, TMC's Mitra is hopeful of winning “by one lakh votes”. “It’s because people of the entire state are reaping the benefits of development work launched after the TMC came to power in the state in 2011 under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee,” Mitra says. Raiganj The TMC is desperate to win Raiganj, which has remained in Opposition hands throughout the party's reign in the state. Although the BJP's Debasree Chaudhuri won the seat in 2019, it was historically a Congress stronghold from where Deepa Dasmunsi had last won on the party's ticket in 2009, before current state CPI(M) chief Md Salim won it in 2014. In 2019, BJP's Chaudhuri had beaten both Dasmunsi and Salim. Interestingly, all three candidates in this constituency are turncoats. TMC's Krishna Kalyani defected to the party a month after winning the Raiganj Assembly segment in 2021 on a BJP ticket. BJP's Kartik Paul joined the party before the 2021 Assembly elections, after rising through the ranks as a Congress worker, and then a TMC leader of Uttar Dinajpur district. Meanwhile, Congress's Ali Imran Ramz alias Victor, who joined the party last year, was a Forward Bloc MLA from Chakulia between 2009 and 2021.
