The byelections to three Assembly constituencies — English Bazar, Rejinagar and Nalhati — passed off peacefully. CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose gave the credit for this to the deployment of huge Central security forces. “It is true that the bypolls were completely peaceful but this was because of the heavy presence of Central security forces in all three constituencies,” he added.
Mr Bose said that it was the responsibility of the Mamata Banerjee government to ensure that the coming panchayat elections were also held in a peaceful manner. “The administration is behaving as a stooge of the ruling party and therefore we apprehend that the panchayat polls will not be fair and violence-free. The Election Commission should ensure that the rural polls are also held peacefully,” he said, adding that for this purpose the panchayat polls should be staggered in at least three phases.
Considering that these were bypolls, the average 82 per cent polling was noteworthy. Even after the official closing time (5 pm), long queues were seen outside the polling booths. All three constituencies witnessed a three-cornered contest. Although the BJP and Independent candidates were also in the fray the main contest centred around the Left Front, Congress and Trinamul Congress.
The total absence of rigging or violence in Rejinagar in Murshidabad was remarkable. In Rejinagar, as in English Bazar in Malda district, the fate of two state ministers will be decided. In Rejinagar, the Trinamul Congress has fielded minister of state for animal husbandry Humayun Kabir while in English Bazar, minister of state for tourism Krishnendu Chowdhury was in the fray. Both had won these seats in the 2011 Assembly election as Congress candidates. However, a few months ago, they quit Congress and joined the Trinamul Congress.
The bypolls were necessitated in Rejinagar and English Bazar after the resignation of Mr Kabir and Mr Chowdhury from their respective seats.
In Nalhati, the bypoll was necessitated following the resignation of Abhijit Mukherjee who went on to become MP from Jangipur. In Nalhati, the Congress has fielded Abdur Rehman and Trinamul Congress candidate is Biplab Ojha.
Significantly, all three constituencies where bypolls were held on Saturday belonged to the Congress. So it is an acid test for both the Congress and the Trinamul Congress. For the Congress to retain them and for the Trinamul Congress to ascertain whether Mamata magic is still working or not.
The Left Front, on the other hand, was confident that it would wrest all three seats taking advantage of the split in the anti-Left vote between the Congress and the Trinamul Congress.