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Indian Express
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Congress announces Kabil Uddin Sheikh as candidate for Kaliganj bypoll; Left Front to support
After a series of talks, the Left Front and the Congress have agreed to jointly fight the Kaliganj Assembly bypoll in West Bengal which is slated to be held on June 19. On Saturday, the Congress announced Kabil Uddin Sheikh as its candidate for the seat. Earlier, CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim had said that the party did well in the area in the previous Lok Sabha election and hence it will put up a candidate in Kaliganj, which is a traditional Congress bastion. Besides the Congress, Left ally RSP has won the seat four times during the Left Front's rule. In 2016, the Congress – which was in an alliance with the Left – won the Assembly seat, but its winning candidate later joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC). TMC's Nasiruddin Ahmed won from Kaliganj in 2011 but lost in 2016. He again regained the seat in 2021. After his demise in February this year, the seat has been vacant. During the Left Front meeting on Friday, allies of the CPI(M) said that the seat should ideally go to the RSP, but for the sake of the alliance, it should be given to the Congress. The CPI(M) leadership agreed. A senior CPI(M) leader said, 'It was decided in the Left Front meeting that the RSP may fight in the 2026 Assembly election, but now the seat can be given to the Congress. The TMC had earlier announced that it will field Nasiruddin Ahmed's daughter Alifa Ahmed, 38, in the seat. A BTech graduate, she works at a renowned IT company. Salim had said earlier, 'We fought the panchayat and Lok Sabha election there (Kaliganj) and did well. In the 2016 Assembly election, the Congress won the seat but their MLA joined the TMC. So, we think if we can file a candidate there and fight unitedly, we can defeat the BJP and TMC there.' During the 2011 Assembly election, the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC was in alliance with the Congress. They also formed a government with the Congress. But within one year, the alliance broke, following which the Congress never tied up with the TMC at the state level or in any other election. The CPI(M)-led Left Front first had an official alliance with the Congress in the 2016 polls. The Congress won 44 seats, Left Front 30, the BJP three and the TMC won 211 out of the 294 seats in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. However, just after the Assembly election, the alliance broke. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, no alliance was formed between the Left Front and Congress. The Congress won two seats, BJP 18, and the TMC 22 seats out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Left Front failed to open its account. In the 2021 Assembly election, the Left Front, Congress and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) were in alliance. The Left Front and the Congress failed to open their accounts, while the ISF won a seat. The TMC won 213 and the BJP won 77 seats. During the 2024 Lok Sabha election, even though the TMC joined the Congress and Left parties under the INDIA bloc at the national level, they had no alliance with either party in the state. The Congress, however, tied up with the Left Front and won a seat. Left parties other than the CPI(M) again failed to make a mark. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election and the 2023 panchayat election, the Left Front-Congress alliance did well. Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal. Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur. He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read More
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
CPIM to field own candidate, looks to Congress for support
CPI(M) West Bengal secretary Md. Selim on Wednesday announced the party's plan to field a candidate in the Kaliganj bypoll, to be held in June, with the support of the Congress party, citing their strong performance in the Lok Sabha elections 2024. However, the Congress has yet to confirm whether they will support the CPIM candidate. The Election Commission on Sunday announced June 19 as the date for the by-election to the Kaliganj Assembly seat in Nadia district of West Bengal. 'We have fought in the Panchayat and the Lok Sabha election there and did well. In the 2016 Assembly election, the Congress won the seat, but their MLA joined TMC. So, we think if we can file a candidate there and fight unitedly, we can defeat the BJP as well as the TMC there,' Selim said. 'We had a state committee meeting and Left Front meeting on Wednesday. There also we spoke on this and will approach the Congress,' he added. 'In the Lok Sabha election in 2024, our candidate for Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat, S M Sadi secured the highest votes in Kaliganj, which is more than 18% of total votes. So, we are assuming we will do well in Kaliganj bypoll and definitely we will file a candidate there,' a senior CPIM leader said. Congress leader Soumya Aich Roy said, 'Traditionally, Kaligunj is our seat. I think everything can be resolved through talks. But, an alliance is necessary to fight against the BJP and TMC.' Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), a Left Front ally, also has extended support to CPIM, stating they will back the party's candidate in the Kaligunj bypoll if CPIM decides to field one. Kaligunj has traditionally been a Congress stronghold, with the party winning the seat in 2016 as part of a Left Front alliance. Notably, the Left ally RSP had previously won the seat four times during the Left regime. However, the Congress candidate later defected to the Trinamool Congress. TMC's Nasiruddin Ahmed won from Kaliganj in 2011 but lost in 2016. He again regained the seat in 2021. After his demise the seat fell vacant. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has named Alifa Ahmed, daughter of late Nasiruddin Ahmed, as its candidate for the Kaligunj bypoll. Alifa, 38, is a graduate and works at a prominent IT company. In the 2011 Assembly election, Mamata Banerjee-led TMC formed a government with Congress as alliance partners. However, the alliance broke down within a year, and Congress has since maintained distance from TMC at both state and national levels. In the 2016 Assembly election, the CPIM-led Left Front and Congress formed their first-ever official alliance. The election results saw Congress winning 44 seats, the Left Front securing 30 seats, BJP getting 3 seats, and the TMC sweeping 211 seats out of 294 seats of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. However, the alliance was short-lived and did not hold for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. In the Lok Sabha polls, Congress won 2 seats, BJP secured 18 seats, and TMC bagged 22 seats out of 42, while the Left Front failed to win any seat. In the 2021 Assembly election, the Left Front, Congress, and Indian Secular Front (ISF) formed an alliance. However, the Left Front and Congress failed to win any seats, while ISF managed just one seat. TMC secured 213 seats, and BJP won 77 seats. During the 2024 Lok Sabha election, despite TMC's national alliance with Congress and Left parties in the INDIA bloc, there was no alliance between them in West Bengal. Congress, however, formed an alliance with the CPIM-led Left Front in the state. The results saw Congress win one seat, while other Left parties failed to secure any. This contrasted with the 2023 Panchayat election and the 2024 Lok Sabha election, where the Left Front-Congress alliance performed well. After the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the alliance between the Congress and the Left Front broke and they fought bypoll separately. Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal. Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur. He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read More
Hans India
7 days ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Bypoll in Bengal's Kaliganj seat acid test for CM Mamata Banerjee amid multiple controversies
Kolkata: Kaliganj Assembly constituency in Nadia district of West Bengal is among the five Assembly constituencies that are scheduled to go for bypolls on June 19. The counting will be on June 23. The other four constituencies that will go to the polls are Kadi and Visavdar in Gujarat, Ludhiana-West in Punjab, and Nilambur in Kerala. The last date for making nominations is June 2, and the date for the scrutiny of nominations is June 3. The last date for the withdrawal of candidatures is June 5. Bypolls for the Kaliganj Assembly constituency were necessitated following the sudden demise of its erstwhile Trinamool Congress legislator Nasiruddin Ahmed in February this year at the age of 70. Since then, the chair of the legislator has been lying vacant. Ahmed got elected for the first time from Kaliganj in the 2011 West Bengal elections, which marked the end of the 34-year Left Front rule in West Bengal and the beginning of the Mamata Banerjee-led and Trinamool Congress-ruled regime. However, he was defeated by Congress' Hasanazzamn Sheikh in the 2016 elections. After being out of the corridors of power for five years, Ahmed again got elected in the 2021 Assembly polls. Before 2011 and since 1977, which marked the beginning of the 34-year-old Left Front regime, Kaliganj had witnessed frequent changes in voting results with the contests being concentrated between Left Front ally Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP and the Indian National Congress. In the 2021 Assembly elections, Ahmed got elected from Kaliganj by defeating the BJP's Abhijit Ghosh by a margin of 46,987 votes. Congress' Abdul Kasem came in the third position, securing just 25,076 votes. The bypoll is perceived to be an acid test for the ruling Trinamool Congress and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee amid multiple controversies, including the loss of jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching jobs in state-run schools in the state and pending payment of dearness allowance dues to the state government employees and others. At the same time, the bypoll is also a challenge for the opposition BJP, and it is to be seen whether they can transfer the growing grievances of people on these issues in their favour. Earlier this month, on May 9, the final electoral list for Kaliganj was published. The final list featured a decrease of over 2,000 voters from the number in the 2021 Assembly polls. The final list was announced following a special summary revision by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal. As per the final electoral list, the total number of voters in Kaliganj stands at 2,52,670.
