Sagardighi bypoll: Left supported Cong candidate leads after 1st round

KOLKATA: Though marginally, the Left Front supported Congress candidate Bayron Biswas is reported to be ahead at the end of the first round of counting in the bypoll to the Sagardighi Assembly constituency in West Bengal's Murshidabad district.

After the first round of counting, the Congress candidate is ahead by 521 votes from the Trinamool Congress candidate Debasish Bandopadhyay. BJP's Dilip Saha is in the third position.

In the first round mainly, the postal ballots were counted. Since the postal ballot segment caters mainly to the state government employees, it is evident that the ongoing movement in the state over the pending dearness allowances arrears had a negative impact in the vote bank of the state's ruling party in this segment.

Reacting to media persons Bayron Biswas said that he is happy with the initial trend and he is confident that this trend will continue. "I am confident that I will be the first representative from my party in the current Assembly," Biswas said.

To recall, in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls both Congress and Left Front, despite having an alliance at that point of time also, ended without having a single legislative Assembly seat. Currently, the only representative of the Congress- Left Front- All India Secular Front (AISF) alliance in 2021, in the state Assembly is the AISF legislature from the Bhangar Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district, Naushad Siddique.

The bypoll in Sagardighi was necessitated following the sudden demise of erstwhile Trinamool Congress MLA Subrata Saha on December 29 last year.

He was a three-time Trinamool legislator from the Sagardighi Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, securing consecutive victories in 2011, 2016 and 2021. In 2021, he got elected defeating BJP's Mafuja Khatun by a margin of 50,216 votes.