The police administration on Thursday went on high alert as an uneasy lull descended in parts of Cooch Behar district of North Bengal which will go to first phase of elections along with neighbouring Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar on Friday.
Union Home Minister for State Nisith Pramanik of the BJP is pitted against his main contender Jagadish Chandra Basunia of Trinamool Congress in the constituency.
Besides intermittent face offs between the TMC and the BJP all these weeks Cooch Behar, an SC seat, has also been in the news because it is one of those few constituencies where the Left and the Congress have failed to put a joint candidate unlike in other parts of the State.
Notwithstanding, all eyes are likely to be on this northern most district of Bengal bordering Assam against the backdrop of four deaths on the opening day of the 2021 Assembly elections when one BJP supporter was allegedly shot dead by the TMC goons and three alleged supporters of the TMC died at booth at Sitalkuchi when the central forces reportedly opened fire to resist booth capture.
In view of the four deaths in 2021 the Election Commission has decided not to deploy any CISF personnel in that area. The same Force had been on duty three years ago.
There has been repeated flare-ups between the TMC and the BJP in Cooch Behar constituency in the past one month with on one occasion the saffron workers and their TMC counterparts fighting a pitched battle in presence of Pramanik on one side and local MLA and State Minister Udayan Guha on the other.
Known for its sensitive character Cooch Behar during the last Assembly elections saw a scuffle between the TMC and the saffron workers in which Guha received a fractured hand.
As late as on Wednesday the TMC men led by the son of Guha staged a dharna at Dinhata Police Station, demanding arrest of BJP men who had allegedly assaulted his supporters.
In the other two constituencies neighbouring Cooch Behar the BJP has renominated Jayanta Roy from Jalpaiguri SC seat and Madarihat MLA Manoj Tigga from Alipurduar ST seat. Tigga replaces the outgoing saffron MP John Barla which has led to a small discontent among some workers and may result in some votes getting alienated from the BJP.
In 2019 the BJP trounced the TMC in all these constituencies which had traditionally been a stronghold of the Left and Congress.
With all the top TMC and BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee campaigning extensively issues that have come up during their campaign were Citizenship Amendment Act, corruption, infiltration. While Banerjee repeatedly attacked the Centre for dividing the people by invoking CAA and NRC and warned them against stepping into their trap, Modi raised the issue of corruption, infiltration from Bangladesh and the vulnerability of women in TMC raj as the incidents at Sandeshkhali would prove.
The Left Front however have been raising the other issues like unemployment, price rise, low wages, closure of tea gardens etc.
In the first phase, a total of 56,26,108 voters including 28,62,494 men, 27,63,506 women and 108 third-gender are likely to exercise their franchise in 5,814 booths.
Meanwhile the Election Commission of India made massive security bandobast for the Friday's elections deploying jawans of Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) or the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)
According to the ECI sources while 112 companies of central forces and 4,500 State police men will be deployed at Cooch Behar the figure for Alipurduar is 63 companies of CAPF and 2,500 State police respectively. Jalpaiguri will have 75 companies of central forces and 3,000 State police men.
