Trinamul Congress leader Udayan Guha is preparing to hand the BJP defeat in the Dinhata by-elections for what is being called as “his mental satisfaction,” as he was upset when he was defeated by Nisith Pramanik, the BJP MP
from Cooch Behar, by a narrow margin of 57 votes in the last Assembly elections.
As Mr Pramanik preferred to work as the MP after he was inducted in the Narendra Modi’s Cabinet as minister of state for Home Affairs, the Election Commission has decided to conduct the by-polls for the Dinhata Assembly segment in Cooch Behar.
Since then, Mr Guha has been in touch with his party’s organizational leaders in both booth and gram panchayat levels and even now after party chief Mamata Banerjee announced Mr Guho’s nameas the election candidate
there.
On the other hand, the district BJP leadership is in a tight spot when it comes to retaining the Dinhata seat after the Trinamul Congress won three seats in the recent by-polls, including in Bhawanipur, where Mamata Banerjee won.
Asked to comment, Mr Guha, who joined the Trinamul from the Forward Bloc, said: “I don’t think I was defeated in the last general elections. I didn’t get the winning certificate because my vote was 57 less than the votes bagged by the nearest contender.”
“By elections of general elections, I don’t differentiate them. I have been working inthe political field with the people even before the announcement of the bypolls. Party workers here want to quell the anger following the Assembly election results here,” Mr Guha said.
On the other hand, Cooch Behar district BJP president Malati Rava, who is also an MLA from Tufanganj, said that her party would be able to retain the seat with huge votes and a decent margin. “Owing to post-poll violence under his leadership, Udayan Guho has become more unpopular. This sentiment will go against the Trinamul candidate,” Mrs Rava said.
Notably, the Cooch Behar organizational district has eight Assembly segments. Of them, BJP MLAs won the last elections in seven segments. Trinamul won only.