Bengal Minister faces tough battle in home turf

Egra, Apr 20 (UNI) West Bengal Parliamentary Affairs Minister Probodh Chandra Sinha is facing a tough battle to retain this assembly seat in east Medinipur as the opposition Trinamool Congress has fielded sitting South Contai MLA Sisir Adhikari here.

The constituency goes to poll along with 65 other seats in East Medinipur, Hooghly, Howrah and Nadia in the second phase of Assembly elections on April 22.

Sinha, a candidate for Democratic Socialist Party, a constituent of the Left Front, has been winning the seat since the early seventies. He has been an undisputed leader of the region.

But this time, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), the main opposition in the state, has queered his pitch by fielding Adhikari, giving a new dimension to electoral politics.

Although the Congress has fielded former legislator Samsur Alam Khan here, the battle would be restricted between Mr Sinha and Mr Adhikari.

The Trinamool Congress candidate had secured about 59,515 votes in 2001, short of 3517 votes than the winning candidate. This time, it has pulled out all the stops to swing the voters in their favour.

Left Front chairman and CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose, who went there to campaign on Tuesday, held a rally in support of Sinha, suggesting that the ruling partners were serious about the fight.

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