Kolkata, Oct 28 The main contest, in Haroa, a minority-dominated constituency in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, will be between the ruling Trinamool Congress and All India Secular Front (AISF).
The constituency is heading for a four-cornered contest in the forthcoming bypolls scheduled on November 13.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front has decided to support the AISF candidate after a series of discussions with Naushad Siddique, the sole AISF representative in the West Bengal assembly.
AISF has fielded Piyarul Islam, a young advocate by profession. His closest contestant is Trinamool Congress’s Sheikh Rabiul Islam, a young face of the party.
However, his nomination has created discontent among the local ruling party leadership who claimed that it would have been better if the party had nominated any local individual instead of an outsider.
Since there is no seat-sharing agreement between Congress and Left Front this time for the bypolls, Congress has fielded Habib Reza Chowdhury. BJP has fielded Bimal Das, the only Hindu candidate from among the four major political parties contesting in the bypoll from Haroa.
Haroa is going for bypolls since its erstwhile Trinamool Congress legislator Haji Nurul Islam got elected as the party Lok Sabha member from Basirhat constituency in the general elections this year.
Islam, however, expired at the age of 61 this year leaving the chair of Basirhat Lok Sabha member vacant.
Haroa is traditionally a stronghold of Left Front constituent CPI, with the party candidates winning eight consecutive times from 1977 to 2006.
The power equation at Haroa changed in favour of Trinamool Congress for the first time in 2011. Trinamool Congress candidates also emerged as the victors in 2016 and 2021.
With less than two lakh voters, the economy of Haroa is highly dependent on agriculture with the proportion of share-croppers and agriculture labourers being quite high.
--IANS
src/dan
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