JOIN USWith Cooch Behar in North Bengal going to polls, the Trinamool Congress has geared up for a tough battle ahead on May 5, the final phase of polling in Bengal.
Even as all the parties are putting in efforts, the Trinamool seems particularly focussed on wining maximum seats from the district, given this could be the last few seats the ruling party can pick up from the region.
While the Trinamool and the Opposition parties have all channelised their energy and resources on the district, all the parties have lined up their star campaigners to woo voters, with campaigning coming to end on Tuesday. Trinamool sources admit that the ruling party has the most at stake since Cooch Behar is the only North Bengal district where they can hope to pick up the most number of seats, unlike in the other six districts in the region. With her eyes on the goal, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee addressed as many as six public meetings and rallies across Cooch Behar in last two days.
Gautam Deb, outgoing North Bengal development minister and Trinamool’s leader from the region, said Mamata will leave North Bengal for Kolkata only after the elections are over. Besides rallies at far-flung parts of the district, Mamata will be addressing public meetings at the two seats surrounding Cooch Behar town as well as at Dinhata. In Dinhata, the party hopes to fare well since it fielded sitting Forward Bloc MLA Udayan Guha, who defected to the Trinamool in 2015. The Trinamool has also roped in senior leader Mukul Roy and actor Dev to address rallies. Interestingly, while CPM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra has already addressed a number of rallies in the district, the BJP brought in big guns like Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh to campaign in the area.
2 CID officers killed while defusing bombs
Two CID personnel were killed while defusing bombs in a village near Bangladesh border in the district on Monday, even as four persons were killed and four others were injured while making the bombs ahead of the last phase of polling on May 5 in the state, PTI reports from Malda.
Vishuddhananda Mishra and Subrata Chowdhury died while they were being rushed to Kolkata for further treatment after being seriously injured when two crude bombs went off as the CID bomb squad officials were trying to defuse them, senior police officers said.