Kolkata, Nov 25 Byelection to three Assembly seats in West Bengal — Kaliaganj in North Dinajpur, Kharagpur Sadar in West Midnapore and Karimpur in Nadia district— began this morning under a tight security umbrella. Reports of some stray incidents are pouring in from the three constituencies.
The Kaliaganj seat fell vacant following the death of sitting Congress MLA Pramatha Nath Ray on May 31, while byelections to the Kharagpur Sadar and Karimpur seats were necessitated after sitting BJP MLA Dilip Ghosh and TMC’s Mahua Moitra were elected to the Lok Sabha from Midnapore and Krishnnanagar respectively. Counting will take place on November 28.
The Election Commission has decided to use EVMs and VVPATs at all the polling stations. A three-pronged fight is on among the ruling Trinamool, BJP and the Congress-Left Front combine, which have decided to go for a seat-sharing arrangement in the coming elections.
The Trinamool Congress has fielded Pradip Sarkar from Kharagpur Sadar, Bimalendu Singha Roy from Karimpur and Tapan Deb Singha from Kaliaganj. Golam Rabbi, a lawyer by profession, from CPI(M) is the Left Front candidate from Karimpur Assembly seat. The Congress is supporting Rabbi due to its alliance with the Left Front.
The Congress has fielded Dhitasri Roy for Kaliaganj and Chittaranjan Mondal for Kharagpur Assembly seats. BJP state vice-president Joy Prakash Majumder is the party candidate for the Karimpur Assembly seat, while Prem Chandra Jha is fighting from Kharagpur Sadar and Kamal Chandra Sarkar from Kaliaganj Assembly constituencies.
