The wife of a CRPF jawan who was killed in the 2019 Pulwama attack has been fielded by the BJP for the bypoll scheduled to be held at Dhupguri assembly seat in north Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district on September 5.
BJP candidate Tapasi Roy who is the wife of Jagannath Roy, a jawan killed in the February 14, 2019 Pulwama attack in Jammu and Kashmir in which 40 CRPF personnel died in an attack by a suicide bomber of the Jaish-e-Mohammad.
The by-poll was necessitated because BJP MLA Bishnu Pada Roy who was also a former Army personnel died in July this year. He had defeated TMC candidate Mitali Roy in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls.
All parties have fielded members of the local Rajbangshi community which constitutes a noticeable section of the region’s population.
BJP vs TMC
The ruling TMC has slammed the BJP for fielding the widow of a slain jawan and alleged that the party is attempting to use terror attack to score political points.
TMC’s West Bengal vice president Jay Prakash Majumdar said that it is wrong to connect the sacrifice of soldiers to politics.
“The BJP has projected the loss of lives of jawans in Pulwama for political gains several times including in 2019, which helped the party win the Lok Sabha polls. It is wrong to connect national security and sacrifice of soldiers to politics,” he said.
The BJP hit back hard and said that the TMC insulted the armed forces through its remarks.
“Suspecting the role of the Army and using defamatory language in reference to our security forces is part of the TMC’s culture. The TMC has insulted the armed forces today through its remarks,” BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.
Notably, the TMC has fielded a history professor Nirmal Chandra Roy against the BJP candidate for the by-election.
The candidate, however, has not fielded any candidate for the seat for CPI(M) whose Ishwar Chandra Roy, a retired school teacher, will be up against Tapasi Roy.
The BJP, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, had bagged 18 of the 42 seats. The party had secured seven seats from north Bengal region, turning it into its stronghold. Two years later, the party won 75 out of 294 Assembly seats in 2021. It bagged 30 out of 54 seats in north Bengal.
History of Dhupguri Assembly seat
The Dhupguri Assembly seat has been reserved for the Scheduled Castes. The seat has been a stronghold of the CPIM as the party registered victories from 1977 to 2011 before being defeated by TMC in 2016.
CPIM’s Banamali Roy remained an MLA from the seat for 24 years (1977 to 2001). TMC’s Mitali Roy won the seat from the CPIM in 2016 before the BJP’s victory in the seat in 2021.
