Demonetisation main issue in Bengal by-polls

The Centre's demonetisation decision dominated all other issues during campaigning for by-elections to two Lok Sabha and one assembly seats in West Bengal, where polling will be held on Saturday.

By-elections will be held for Cooch Behar (Reserved-Scheduled Castes) parliamentary seat in northern Bengal and Tamluk in the southern part. The by-election will also be held for Monteshwar assembly seat. The vote count is on Tuesday.

The state's principal parties -- the ruling Trinamool Congress, the Congress, the Left Front and the Bharatiya Janata Party -- have fielded candidates for all three seats.

The by-poll is being held at a time of chaos across the country with people forced to stand in long queues before bank branches and ATMs banks to exchange old notes or withdraw money following the Narendra Modi led central government's sudden decision to ban 500- and 1,000-rupee currency notes in a bid to check black money and counterfeit coins.

All the parties have made the cash turmoil -- which has hit trade and business -- a major plank of their poll campaigns.

The BJP is harping on the "bold decision" the Modi government took on November 8 night.

"The common man is very happy with the bold move. They are ready to face a little inconvenience to remove corruption from the nation," said BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha, who drummed up support for party candidates alongside state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and Union Minister Babul Supriyo in each of the constituencies.

On the other hand, the Trinamool, the Congress and Left Front are dwelling at length on problems faced by the common man over demonetisation.

The state's political scenario has also changed much since the April-May assembly polls, where the Trinamool triumphed.

The Congress and the Left Front, which cobbled up an alliance for the assembly polls but failed to cut much ice with the electorate, have gone their separate ways in the by-election.

The LF and the Congress also suffered major setbacks in recent months as a number of their legislators switched over to the Trinamool.

Banerjee, who has been very vocal in her protest against the Modi government's move, however, stayed away from campaigning. Her party leaders Mukul Roy, Subrata Buxi and Suvendu Adhikari have been spearheading the Trinamool canvassing.

For the Left Front, the main campaigner has been state Communist Party of India-Marxist Secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra.

The Cooch Behar parliamentary constituency comprises all seven assembly segments from Cooch Behar district and had been a bastion of the Left Front partner All India Forward Bloc. But in the 2014 general elections, AIFB lost the seat for the first time in 37 years to Trinamool's Renuka Sinha. Her death has necessitated the by-poll.

In East Midnapore district's Tamluk, which fell vacant after MP Suvendu Adhikari became a minister in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Cabinet, his brother Dibyendu is the Trinamool candidate. The area, which includes the erstwhile political hotspot Nandigram, is a Trinamool stronghold.

Sajal Panja's death caused Monteshwar assembly by-poll, in which Trinamool has nominated his son Saikat Panja.

--IANS

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