TMC MP Yusuf Pathan held a roadshow in Kharagpur Sadar, backing candidate Pradip Sarkar. He expressed confidence in Mamata Banerjee’s return to power and highlighted her stance against the deletion of voters from electoral rolls ahead of the polls.
Yusuf Pathan Campaigns for TMC, Confident of Victory
Trinamool Congress MP and former cricketer on Saturday held a roadshow in support of party candidate from Kharagpur Sadar constituency for the West Bengal polls Speaking to the reporters, Yusuf Pathan said that the party is receiving a positive response, exuding confidence that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will return to power. “There is a positive environment here… There is a positive response from the people as well. Pradip Sarkar will win in this constituency, and Mamata Banerjee will come back to power,” he said.
Speaking about Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral votes, Pathan highlighted Mamata Banerjee’s stance against the deletion of voters. “Mamata Banjeree fought for those whose names were omitted from the electoral list. A lot of people complained of having their names cut despite having the right documents,” he said.
Kharagpur Sadar’s Political Landscape
TMC candidate Pradip Sarkar is up against BJP leader Dilip Ghosh, who is seeking to repeat his 2016 performance, when he had managed to break the streak of 7-time Congress MLA Gyan Singh Sohanpal. But Ghosh had left the MLA seat following his election to the Lok Sabha in 2019. Following a bypoll, it was the TMC candidate Pradip Sarkar who managed to get a win against BJP’s Prem Chandra Jha. However, the win lasted only till 2021, when BJP’s Hiramoy Chattopadhyay managed to wrest the seat back to the party. Chattopadhyay is now contesting from the Shyampur constituency.
Since 2011, the seat has swung from Congress to BJP, to TMC, and then back to BJP. Every winner, irrespective of party has won the seat by getting more than 70,000 votes, save for Dilip Ghosh, who won with more than 61 thousand votes. However, 44,000 votes in the constituency have been deleted due to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), making it uncertain on how the public might vote.
West Bengal is set for two phases of assembly polls on April 23 and 29, with the results set for May 4. (ANI).
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