Asansol North to witness three-cornered fight, BJP has edge

Asansol (WB), Apr 9: Asansol North Assembly constituency located in the industrial belt of West Bengal had never been a pocket borough of a particular political party, and this time the BJP sniffs success in a three-cornered fight, the other two contenders being the ruling Trinamool Congress and the CPI(M)-Congress alliance.

Going by the BJP's massive lead in this Assembly segment under the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, the wind is blowing in its favour, so thinks Nirmal Karmakar, the party's contestant in this important constituency.

Karmakar hopes to repeat the success of his party's MP singer-turned politician Babul Supriyo in the last Lok Sabha poll riding on the many development initiatives undertaken by Supriyo who is also the MOS, Urban Development in the central ministry.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the run-up to the Lok Sabha poll has massively campaigned in the Asansol-Raniganj coal belt, which has a large chunk of Hindi-speaking voters and migrant labourers from Jharkhand and Bihar.

The Trinamool Congress has put up Moloy Ghatak, also the state Labour Minister while Indrani Mishra is the CPI(M)- Congress alliance candidate.

The constituency, which has an electorate of 245118, will go to poll on April 11. Apart from the Saradha scam and Narada sting issues, illegal mining and coal mafia are also important issues in the constituency being flagged by the opposition parties, while the ruling TMC is banking on development initiatives by the state government such as 'Kanyashree and Khadya Sathi'.

TMC sitting MLA Moloy Ghatak had won by over 47,000 votes over his nearest CPI(M) rival in the 2011 election. The BJP had come a distant second.

But in last five years, political equations have significantly changed in the area with the BJP emerging as a front-runner. The saffron party had taken a massive lead in five-six Assembly segments out of a total seven in the last Lok Sabha election.

PTI