West Bengal by-polls: Raiganj BJP candidate accuses TMC of disturbing poll process

Uttar Dinajpur (West Bengal) [India], July 10 (ANI): Manas Kumar Ghosh, the BJP candidate from the Raiganj assembly seat, alleged that the ruling TMC had tried to create disturbances in some booths in the constituency during the voting for the by-polls, which started at 7 am and concludes at 6 pm on Wednesday.
"Voting is going on smoothly. We want voting to take place peacefully and everyone should be able to cast their vote. TMC tried to create disturbances at 2-4 booths but we opposed them and voting is going on peacefully," Ghosh told ANI.
The by-election in the Raiganj assembly constituency is necessitated because of the resignation of Krishna Kalyani as MLA, who won the 2021 election but later left the BJP and switched to the TMC.
Krishna Kalyani is the TMC candidate from the Raiganj assembly seat in the by-election.
Along with Raiganj, other assembly constituencies in the state that went to the poll in the by-polls on Wednesday are Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Maniktala.
Ranaghat Dakshin BJP candidate Manoj Kumar Biswas on Wednesday also accused the ruling TMC of creating a chaotic situation to prevent voters from exercising their franchise freely.
"Ranaghat Dakshin is the BJP's area. It has been proven again and again. There is tremendous enthusiasm among the voters. I am confident that in this election, voters will again make us win but the fact is that TMC, supported by the administration with criminal personnel, is trying to create a chaotic situation so that no voter comes to the voting centre," Biswas told ANI.
"They are threatening our voters and workers. A free and fair election is not possible in West Bengal because the government does not want it," he added.
Bypolls in Ranaghat, Dakshin, Raiganj and Bagda are necessitated because the BJP MLAs who won these constituencies in the 2021 election switched to the TMC.
The TMC won the Maniktala seat in the 2021 election, however, the sitting TMC MLA, Sadhan Pandey, died in February 2022, necessitating the election.
Mukut Mani Adhikari, whose resignation as MLA necessitated the election, is the TMC candidate in the Ranaghat Dakshin constituency.
For both the BJP and TMC, these by-polls are seen as high-stakes elections. The TMC wants to carry on the momentum of its better performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, while for the BJP, repeating the win in Ranaghat, Dakshin, Raiganj and Bagda is seen as prestigious.
The TMC won 29 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, up from 22 in the 2019 parliamentary polls. On the other hand, the BJP's tally came down to 12 from 18 in 2019.
Other states where by-polls are being held today are Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh.
In these seven states, 13 Assembly constituencies went to the polls today. The voting started at 7 am will conclude at 6 pm.
Assembly by-polls are being held in West Bengal's Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Maniktala; Badrinath and Manglaur in Uttarakhand; Jalandhar West in Punjab; Dehra, Hamirpur, and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh; Rupauli in Bihar; Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu; and Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh. (ANI)