The upcoming by-elections in four Assembly constituencies in West Bengal is hardly making any headlines. While ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is pulling out all stops, the principal opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) campaign has been uncharacteristically muted.
The saffron party named Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, union ministers like Smriti Irani and Giriraj Singh along with 17 leaders from Bengal as the star campaigners for the four by-polls. All the above-mentioned heavyweights are missing and didn’t campaign for the by-election.
The byelection will take place in Shantipur and Dinhata assembly seats in Nadia and Cooch Behar district respectively as two BJP MPs, Jaganath Sarkar and Nisith Pramanik contested from these two seats and resigned after winning to save their respective membership in the parliament.
The demise of TMC MLAs Kajal Sinha, and Jayanta Naskar necessitated re-election in North 24 Parganas’ Khardah and Gosaba in South 24 Parganas.
By-elections, for obvious reasons, do not get a lot of media attention. In the just completed by-election last month, TMC won all three seats, with chief minister Mamata Banerjee winning with a record margin from Bhabanipur. But this time it is even worse, as the main opposition poses no challenge to the ruling party.