India News: Murshidabad and three districts north of Murshidabad - Coochbehar, North Dinajpur and Malda - accounted for 13 of Saturday's 16 deaths, with five live
Amidst Covid-19 fire, Hindu-Muslim polarisation is Bengal s biggest poll factor
Even amidst the pandemic, Hindu-Muslim polarisation is, by far, the biggest factor in the ongoing Bengal Assembly election.
advertisement
UPDATED: April 27, 2021 06:56 IST
Even amidst the pandemic, Hindu-Muslim polarisation is, by far, the biggest factor in the ongoing Bengal Assembly election. (India Today)
In Asansol, 18-year-old Rakesh Prasad will be voting for the first time this election. “Corona ke cases bohot badh gaye hai (corona cases have increased a lot),” he says. But will the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic determine his vote? Not really. “We have to unite the Hindus - and that is why I will vote for the BJP,” says the young student.
Basu, who used to be a district mentor group member in TMC, named seven district office-bearers and at least one MP, East Burdwan’s Sunil Mandal, as being BJP-bound. Mandal has yet to confirm or deny that he will join BJP at Shah’s rally.
TMC isn’t the only dissent-ridden party BJP seems to be gaining from. CPM’s Tapasi Mondal, the MLA from East Midnapore’s Haldia, is said to be among those ready to cross over.
The desertion bug bit Trinamool’s Birbhum bastion as well, where former Bolpur Municipality councillors Arup Roy and Shelley Roy resigned on Friday, sparking speculation that they might be joining BJP when Shah visits the district on Sunday.
File photo of Suvendu Adhikari (R) with Mamata Banerjee. (PTI)
KOLKATA: Former Bengal minister and estranged Mamata Banerjee aide Suvendu Adhikari quit Trinamool Congress on Thursday, taking the third and possibly final step in his journey to BJP and opening the floodgates for a bunch of resignations by his loyalists and at least one disgruntled senior colleague MLA Jitendra Tiwari from West Burdwan.
By evening, the rumblings of discontent had become a roar of rebellion that cleaved Trinamool-run civic bodies in West Burdwan and Hooghly, besides jolting the party organisation in Adhikari’s home turf East Midnapore and Jangalmahal. In Hooghly, Dankuni municipality vicechairman Debashis Mukherjee gave up his civic post, announcing he was with “Dada”.