Kolkata, Sep 15 (UNI) Keeping in mind prescribed Covid-19 norms and recent inclement weather,campaign managers of rival political parties adopted some alternate strategies to woo the voters as the hot seat of Bhawanipur assembly in south Kolkata has been a talk across India since the ECI last month declared by-poll and ignoring other vacant seats in West Bengal.
A three-cornered contest is on the cards for September 30 voting as
chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is seeking re-election
after her defeat to BJP rival Suvendu Adhikari in the March-April poll
at Nandigram in Medinipur district.
The principal opposition BJP has fielded 40-year-old firebrand
advocate Priyanka Tibrewal and CPI(M) nominated advocate Shreejib
Biswas.
All the three have filed their nomination papers and began campaigning.
But this time electioneering is more or less is happening quietly
since the street meeting and rally would attract criticism from
different
quarters as the common people are in the fear and panic of catching
the third wave of pandemic,
The contestants and their trusted campaign managers have chosen
door-to-door contact with the voters in all eight wards of the
Bhawanipur assembly seat. They also hurling demerits of the rivals and
merit and achievements of a particular candidate and
their political party.
In Bengal politics for the last three decades Mamata Banerjee is
obviously holding the driver seat, especially after the Singur and
Nandigram peasants movements in the Left Front era and, particularly after
ousting the communists from power in 2011 assembly elections.
Naturally the proximity of Ms Banerjee, either a close aide or a
fiercest political rival would also attract the attention of the
people as well as the voters of a constituency.
Though Priyanka Tibrewal fought the last assembly from Moulali in
central Kolkata and lost to TMC candidate Swarna Kmal Saha by about
50,000 votes, her limelight happened recently for leading cases of
post poll violences and the Calcutta high court ordered a CBI probe.
" I am fighting for the oppressed and victims of political crimes and
my fight is is for restoration of democracy in West Bengal," Tibrewal
said immediately after the central BJP leadership named her a
contestant against Mamata Banerjee.
Suvendu Adhikari after winning the Nandigram seat, the BJP chose him
to be leader of the legislative assembly, a reward for defeating
most sought after politician and unchallenged leader for over to
decades in West Bengal, the TMC supremo.
Ms Banerjee in the 2016 poll had won over 50,000 votes from
Bhawanipur, which reduced the margin in 2021 when Sovandeb Chatterjee
won 28,719 against BJP candidate Rudranil Ghosh. Among the eight wards BJP led
only in two and TMC in six, However,in 2019 Parliament poll BJP had
lead in six wards.
The TMC leadership campaigning for Mamata Banerjee claimed it will be
an easy task for their supreme leader as the voters have already
decided their mind to vote for their chief minister.
Tibrewal says if the voting was allowed to hold fair and free and
voters cast 70 per cent poll, then she will be the winner. She also
says she is aware of this history. The BJP candidate, surrounded by her
security personnel, starts her campaign at 8am daily and claimed she
is daughter of Bhawanipur.
UNI PC KK