KOLKATA: Re-polling in the high-voltage Falta assembly constituency under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal is set to take place on Thursday amid tight security arrangements.
The re-election seems significant for BJP, which has bagged 207 seats and formed its first government in the state, and the CPM that desperately trying to emerge as second political force after Trinamool-nominated candidate Jahangir Khan, withdrew his candidature.It will be a milestone for the BJP if the saffron party wins Falta, which the Trinamool Congress has been bagging since 2011 with 54% votes on an average.
In 2021 assembly polls, the BJP that bagged around 37% votes in Falta could not field candidates in two other previous elections in 2011 and 2016 from the constituency.
There will be a three-corner fight among the BJP, the CPM-led Left Front with the support of its ally the Indian Secular Front (ISF), and Congress in Falta.
The Congress had pitted candidate with support of the Left in 2021 and got only 3% vote in Falta, while the CPM, which had 37% vote share in 2011 and 2016, was the second nearest rival to the then ruling party Trinamool Congress.
“Trinamool Congress gave a walkover to the BJP but only the Left is in the battle,” CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said while reacting to Khan’s withdrawal as a contestant in the Falta constituency.
No Trinamool Congress heavyweights, including Abhishek, were seen campaigning for Khan in the repolling phase in Falta, hardly 40 km away from Kolkata.
Abhishek, who won the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Diamond Harbour for third time since 2014 with the highest record margin of more than seven lakh votes across the country,
didn’t address even a single repolling rally in Falta seeking votes for his trusted lieutenant Khan, who had given him a lead of around 1.70 lakh votes only from his assembly constituency.