Barrackpore: BJP's Arjun Singh who had swapped parties almost every season, oscillating between the saffron brigade and the TMC is trailing by 64,878 votes whereas AITC's Partha Bhowmick currently is in the lead.
Singh is among the most talked-about candidates from the 2019 Lok Sabha election in West Bengal. The Barrackpur BJP has nominated him again, but not before he pulled off two stunning political comebacks recently. Singh, a former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA, joined the BJP after being refused a ticket for the 2019 parliamentary election.
He emerged victorious from Barrackpore with a mere 15,000 votes. Singh joined the TMC again in 2022, citing disagreements with the state BJP leadership. Singh had resumed that Mamata Banerjee's party will run him from Barrackpore in 2024; but, on March 10, she declared Partha Bhowmick's candidacy. Within days, an irate Singh returned to the BJP and was nominated again for his seat.
Singh, a former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA, joined the BJP after being refused a ticket for the 2019 parliamentary election. He prevailed from Barrackpur with a mere 15,000 votes. Singh joined the TMC again in 2022, citing disagreements with the state BJP leadership.Once known as the industrial belt of Bengal, factory after factory along the arterial Barrackpore Trunk Road today bear a deserted look. Blame it on rampant unionism by the Left or the highhandedness of the ruling dispensation of the Trinamool Congress, Barrackpore has lost its sheen.
And amid this gloominess, the ugly side of social life, that of violence and bloodshed, has been on the rise. After the last 2019 general elections, the months of June to September had witnessed unprecedented rise in post-poll violence. Hundreds of families fled, Internet connections had to be snapped and the Commissioner of Barrackpore Police Commissionerate had to be replaced.
What led to that violence? Arjun Singh, who had switched sides from Trinamool to BJP and won, blamed it on the Trinamool Congress and its vengeance politics of not being able to ‘digest’ his victory. TMC blamed Arjun squarely for all the ills that happened in Barrackpore.
It is election season again. Arjun had in the meantime switched sides to Trinamool, only to return to BJP after he was denied a ticket this time. It went to state minister Partha Bhowmick, instead. Once back in the saffron fold, Arjun has been pitted against Partha. Partha has been a three-time MLA from Naihati and a state minister.
He wields considerable command over the district. In fact, after the 2019 loss, TMC bounced back in the 2021 Assembly elections by winning all six Assembly segments of Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency. Minus, Bhatpara. Arjun never let his fief slip through.
Amid the two mythological characters of Mahabharata, that of Partha and Arjun (both resembling Krishna), is CPIM’s actor-turned-politician Debdoot Ghosh. Can Debdoot bring any colour to the once Red fort of Barrackpore alongside the eastern banks of the Hooghly River or he will only be a catalyst in facilitating the winner among the two biggies of Barrackpore, Partha Bhowmick and Arjun Singh? Wait till June 4.
