Trinamool, BJP gear up for crucial bypolls

The bypolls for Bongaon Lok Sabha seat and Krishnaganj Assembly seat on Friday in Nadia district will be crucial for West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee as this is the first election since several party leaders were arrested in the Saradha scam.

The two seats are reserved for SC candidates. The Matuas, a community of lower class Hindu refugees who migrated to India between the 1940s and 1971, have a major role to play at the Lok Sabha seat in North 24 Parganas district.

For the BJP, too, it is equally important as this will put to test the organisational machinery it has set up in Bengal. In Bongaon, the BJP is fielding Subrata, son of Manjul Krishna Thakur, who recently switched sides from Trinamool, after having served as refugee rehabilitation minister in Banerjee’s Cabinet.

Bongaon seems to have hogged much of the limelight because of the division in Matua vote with Subrata fighting his aunt Mamatabala, widow of sitting Trinamool MP Kapil Krishna Thakur who passed away few months back.

Banerjee has issued a diktat that the BJP candidate must lose his deposit. The seat will also see the presence of Debesh Das, a former minister in the Left Front government, with the Congress expected to lag behind.

The Krishnaganj seat, which fell vacant following the death of Trinamool MLA Sushil Biswas, is a matter of prestige for the ruling party given the manner in which the BJP has gained grounds in Bengal since the 2014 general election.

While the Trinamool has launched an intensive campaign, party candidate Satyajit Mondal is reportedly spending more than 12 hours a day on the campaign trail.

Despite the presence of heavyweight Trinamool leaders, insiders admitted that the mission was a challenging one. By fielding Subrata for the MP seat, the BJP has damaged the morale of Trinamool workers, who apprehend that the Matua vote, which came en bloc towards Trinamool in the past, could get split. Their fears, however, have been allayed after Boroma, the Matua matriarch, raised the memory of her elder son Kapil Krishna and posed his widow as the rightful contender as opposed to her younger son, Manjul Krishna.

The Bongaon seat is seen as a litmus test for Abhishek, who is already being tipped to be Banerjee’s political heir.