WB Dhupguri bypoll: A litmus test for parties ahead of Lok Sabha elections

Voting for the Dhupguri bypoll in the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal is underway with a total of 269,416 voters exercising their franchise to decide the fate of the candidates of the three major parties - the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), the BJP, and the CPI(M), backed by the Congress.

The triangular contest will be a litmus test for these major parties mainly for the INDIA bloc which are pitted against each other in Dhupguri.

The seat, won by BJP's Bishnu Pada Ray in 2021 Assembly polls by over 4,300 votes, fell vacant after Ray's death in July, thereby necessitating the bye-elections.

The TMC has fielded Nirmal Chandra Roy, a professor at the local girls' college, while the BJP has given the ticket to Tapasi Roy, whose CRPF jawan husband was killed in a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir. The CPI(M), on the other hand, has fielded famous folk artist Iswar Chandra Roy.

A total of 30 company Central forces have been deployed in all 260 polling stations under the Dhupguri Assembly segment.

Nearly 1,200 polling personnel have been engaged in conducting the bye-election.

Out of 269,416 voters, there are 131,308 male voters while 137,574 are women, the election commission said.

The constituency is largely agricultural with many tea gardens, having a considerable population of Rajbanshi and Matua caste groups among its 260,000 voters across 260 booths.

In the panchayat elections held in July this year, TMC won the majority in Dhupguri gram panchayat.