Kolkata: BJP's Coochbehar candidate Nisith Pramanik lost to Trinamool Congress candidate Jagadish Chandra Basunia by over 39,000 votes.
While Basunia polled 788375 votes, Pramanik managed to get 749125 votes. Basunia thus won by a margin of 39250 votes.
Pramanik was once a Trinamool Congress man and switched allegiance to BJP due to his rivalry with Udayan Guha. It was one of the high-voltage contests in West Bengal's Coochbehar.
Nisith Pramanik was the minister of state for Home Affairs was trying his luck for the second time from this seat. The old rivalry between Pramanik and TMC's Dinhata MLA and North Bengal Development minister Udayan Guha is well-known and it led to many violence in recent years.
The dynamics of this seat had seen several turns in the near past, with Nisith contesting from Dinhata in the 2021 Assembly elections and barely scraping through. But, when he decided to continue as an MP, BJP lost phenomenally to TMC in the bypolls to Dinhata Assembly.
The Rajbanshis and Adivasis hold much sway in this seat and the BJP has tried to consolidate the Rajbanshi votes in Coochbehar by nominating Greater Coochbehar leader Ananta Maharaj to the Rajya Sabha.
Opposing Nisith tooth and nail is Dinhata MLA and state minister Udayan Guha. Guha knows that the BJP has won 27 gram panchayats in 2023 rural polls. The Trinamool left no stone unturned and as a result of which it achieved success.
Pramanik had secured the Cooch Behar constituency for the BJP from the TMC, which had won the seat in 2014 and also in a bypoll in 2016, which was necessitated following the demise of party MP Renuka Sinha.
