"BJP has understood they are losing": West Bengal Minister Chandrima Bhattacharyadrima Bhattacharya

"BJP has understood that they are losing. Their loss is confirmed because the people of West Bengal know how they have been deprived of their rights. They have understood that they will lose. Those who lose say things like they were attacked before the media. It has been confirmed that our candidates are winning in all three Lok Sabha constituencies (Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, and Jalpaiguri)," the TMC Minister said.

Amid the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in three constituencies in West Bengal, state Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fearful of its defeat and is now claiming that they were attacked during the voting process. "BJP has understood that they are losing. Their loss is confirmed because the people of West Bengal know how they have been deprived of their rights. They have understood that they will lose. Those who lose say things like they were attacked before the media. It has been confirmed that our candidates are winning in all three Lok Sabha constituencies (Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, and Jalpaiguri)," the TMC Minister said.

Bhattacharya said that the voting turnout in the three constituencies shows how peacefully polls were conducted in the state. "The polling happened peacefully and the BJP did not like it. They thought that they would engage in fighting and create such an atmosphere that people would not vote. Look at the vote percentage. This will show how voting took place peacefully here," Bhattacharya said.

Taking on the BJP candidate from Coochbehar, Nisith Pramanik for claiming that there were incidents of hooliganism in a booth at his constituency, Bhattacharya said, "The BJP is so scared that they know that he (Pramanik) is not going to Parliament this time...Nisith Pramanik has done such things at different times that people have come to understand that he is a hooligan." "What the Election Commission has said is in the MCC guidelines which are being followed by our candidate there. Nisith is not liking that. But people who are voting likes him. Hence the vote percentage is continuing to increase," she added.

Bhattacharya further claimed that the BJP is so weak in the state that it has not managed to put up poll agents in three of its booths in Alipurduar. "The BJP Alipurduar candidate is not even able to give a polling agent in four of their booths. If they are not being able to provide a polling agent, people get to know how weak is their organizations. Their supporters are not with them and they do not have enough party workers to organise the Lok Sabha elections. So people are not with them," the TMC leader said.

The state's three parliamentary constituencies--Coochbehar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri--all of which were won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, voted on Friday in the first phase of the General Elections. BJP's Nisith Pramanik has been pitted against the Trinamool Congress' (TMC) Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia from Coochbehar. The Congress has fielded Piya Roy Chowdhury from the seat while the Forward Bloc has fielded Nitish Chandra Roy.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Pramanik won 48 per cent votes defeating TMC's Paresh Chandra Adhikari who won 44.4 per cent votes. In Alipurduar, a Scheduled Tribes (ST) reserved seat, BJP's Manoj Tigga has been fielded against TMC's Prakash Chik Baraik.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP's John Barla won the seat defeating TMC's Dasrath Tirkey. While Barla got 54.4 per cent of votes, Tirkey secured 36.7 per cent votes. In Jalpaiguri, BJP's sitting MP Jayanta Kumar Roy will be contesting against TMC's Nirmal Chandra Ray. Communist Party of India (Marxist) has also fielded Debraj Barman from Jalpaiguri.

In 2019, Jayanta Kumar Roy won the seat, defeating Trinamool's Bijoy Chandra Barman. While Roy got 50.6 per cent of votes, Barman got 38.4 per cent. Polling in the 42 parliamentary constituencies in West Bengal is being held across all seven phases: April 19, April 26, May 4, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1. The counting of votes has been scheduled for June 4.

Though the TMC is part of the INDIA bloc, it does not have a seat-sharing arrangement with the other parties in the alliance, like Congress and the Left parties in the state. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the TMC won 34 seats in the state, while the BJP had to settle for 2 seats. The CPI (M) won 2 seats, while the Congress bagged 4. However, the BJP came up with a much-improved showing in the 2019 polls, winning 18 seats against the TMC's 22. The Congress's tally dropped to just 2 seats, while the Left scored a blank. (ANI)

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