Kolkata, Sep 16 (IANS) : As the minority-dominated Rejinagar Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district of West Bengal is heading for a seven-cornered contest in the bypolls next month, the main question being asked in political circles is whether the results will give an indication of the pulse of Muslim voters in the state.
The bypoll in Rejinagar, along with that in Nandigram Assembly constituency in East Midnapore district, will be held on October 6. The results will be declared on October 9.
Going by the demography of Rejinagar, with Muslims contributing over 65 per cent of the total voters’ strength in the constituency, it appears that the BJP does not have much of a chance of getting its candidate Sakharav Sarkar elected from there.
However, political observers say that the seven-cornered contest in the Rejinagar bypolls this time might upset all political calculations if the saffron camp is able to consolidate non-Muslim votes in its favour. Another deciding factor could be that Muslim voters are getting sharply split among six Opposition camps.
Political observers also state that the Rejinagar results might indicate the future pulse of Muslim voters in the state, specially whether the community’s mass sentiment is still with former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee or if they would choose either the CPI(M)-led Left Front or the Congress.
The interesting factor in case of Rejinagar is that the six parties who are in the race against the BJP, are all eyeing a share in the 65 per cent minority votes in that constituency.
The six non-BJP candidates in the fray are Rabiul Alam Chowdhury from the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress, Sheikh Saifuddin from the Ritabrata Banerjee-led rebel faction of the Trinamool, the CPI(M)’s Syed Asad Ali as the official Left Front-nominated candidate, Revolutionary Socialist Party’s Bikash Chandra as the rebel Left Front candidate, the Congress’ Mohammad Kafi and Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP)’s Golam Nabi Azad, who is the son of AJUP founder Humayun Kabir.
Political observers say that with the six non-BJP parties fighting for minority votes, it might give a chance to the BJP candidate to succeed, provided the saffron camp is able to consolidate the majority share in the remaining 35 per cent of non-Muslim voters in its favour.
“The voting pattern in Rejinagar will also be an indication if the mass Muslim sentiment in favour of Mamata Banerjee is still intact, or has it shifted to any other non-BJP parties,” a city-based political observer said.
In the Assembly election last year, Humayun Kabir got elected from Rejinagar after defeating the BJP candidate Bapan Ghosh by a margin of over 58,000 votes. The united Trinamool Congress candidate, Ataur Rahaman then finished in the third position by bagging just 41,718 votes, which showed that there was consolidation in the Hindu votes at Rejinagar then also.
Kabir also simultaneously got elected from Naoda Assembly Constituency in Murshidabad district, earlier this year. Thereafter, he chose to retain Naoda, thus necessitating the bypoll in Rejinagar.
