Will the upcoming bypolls to the Asansol Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal's Burdwan district see the first ever victory for Trinamool Congress from there? That's the question doing the rounds in the political circles of the state.
In fact, Trinamool supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself is keen to see the party win the seat in the crucial industrial and coal belt of the state, which has a sizeable Hindi-speaking population.
During the closing hours of campaigning for the bypolls, Banerjee will conduct a mega rally in Asansol on April 10. A day before that, her nephew and national general secretary of Trinamool Congress, Abhishek Banerjee, will participate in a 3-km road show in Asansol.
The bypolls are scheduled on April 12 and the counting of votes will take place on April 16.
Despite tasting electoral success in different pockets of the state, Trinamool has never been able to win from Asansol.
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From 1957 to 1967, the Asansol Lok Sabha seat belonged to the Congress. From 1967 to 1971, the Lok Sabha constituency was under the control of Samyukta Socialist Party. From 1971 to 1980, CPI(M) held the seat, before the Congress made a comeback and held the crucial constituency till 1989. From 1989 to 2014, the seat belonged to the CPI(M).
In the 2014 general elections, BJP won the seat for the first time when Babul Supriyo got elected from Asansol. Supriyo won again on a BJP ticket in 2019 following which he also became a minister in the Narendra Modi-led Union government.
However, soon after the 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal, Supriyo left the BJP and joined the Trinamool Congress, resigning as the Asansol Lok Sabha member, which necessitated the bypolls.
While Trinamool has fielded popular Bollywood actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha from Asansol this time, BJP has fielded fashion designer-turned politician, Agnimitra Paul, who is already a sitting BJP legislator from the Asansol (South) Assembly constituency. The CPI(M) has fielded Partha Mukherjee from Asansol.
Supriyo is the Trinamool candidate for the bypolls in the Ballygunge Assembly constituency in Kolkata, the elections for which is also scheduled on April 12.
The by-polls for the Ballygunge Assembly constituency was necessitated by the sudden demise of Trinamool legislator Subrata Mukherjee, who passed away in November 2021.
