An altercation occurred at a polling booth in West Bengal’s Balurghat on Friday between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Sukanta Majumdar and Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers, news agency ANI posted a video of the same. Majumdar alleged the presence of TMC workers at the booth, who were chanting “Go back” slogans directed towards him. Polling for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections is underway at 88 seats across 13 states and a Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Majumdar, a former professor, had secured victory in his electoral debut in 2019, with a lead of over 33,000 votes and capturing the Balurghat Lok Sabha seat from TMC’s Arpita Ghosh. His current contest pits him against TMC stalwart and state minister Biplab Mitra, who is known for his political engagements, including a brief stint with the BJP in 2019.
The Balurghat Lok Sabha constituency has seven Assembly segments, with six situated in Dakshin Dinajpur district and seventh in Uttar Dinajpur. As of now, four of these Assembly seats are under the sway of Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, while three are held by the BJP.
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Apart from Majumdar and Mitra, the Balurghat has witnessed immense campaigning from Jaoydev Siddhanta of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), supported by a coalition of Congress and the Left Front. Notably, Balurghat was formerly a stronghold of the RSP, which consecutively clinched the seat from 1984 to 2009.
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