The campaigning for by-polls to two Assembly seats — Chowringhee and Basirhat Dakshin in West Bengal ended here on Thursday. Fourteen candidates are in the fray in the two Assembly seats for which polling will be held on Saturday.
The by-polls is the first major election in the State after the Lok Sabha polls and stakes are high both for the ruling All India Trinamool Congress which is feeling the heat of the Saradha scam and the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) which is trying to emerge as a major political force in the State.
The political animosity between the Trinamool and the BJP was out in the streets on the last day of campaigning on Thursday when the supporters of the both the parties clashed in the city’s Ganesh Chandra Avenue.
Ritesh Tewari, the BJP candidate alleged that AITC supporters attacked BJP workers and also tried to heckle him. At least 12 persons were injured in the clash and a large number of police personnel were deployed to control the situation. The Trinamool Congress denied the allegation.
The ruling party has fielded Nayana Bandopadhyay, wife of AITC MP Sudip Bandopadhyay on the seat. But it was the Congress which had a marginal lead on the Assembly segment in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls held only a few months ago. The party has fielded Santosh Pathak on the seat and the Left Front’s nominee is Fayaz Ahmed Khan.
In Basirhat Dakshin the contest is mainly between BJP’s Shamik Bhattachrya and AITC footballer-turned politician Dipendu Biswas.
