For the first time in the history since the inception of the party in 1998, the Trinamul Congress is better placed in the Asansol Lok Sabha by-election, which will go to vote tomorrow.

All the TMC senior leadership is sure to break the jinx in the Asansol Lok Sabha seat. The closest fight ever was in 1998, when TMC’s Moloy Ghatak was defeated by Bikash Roy Choudhury of the CPM by a margin of about 28,000 votes in 1998 Lok sabha polls. Babul Supriyo of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had defeated Moon Moon Sen of the TMC in the 2019 parliamentary polls by a margin of over 1.97 lakh votes and before that defeated Dola Sen by a margin of 70,480 votes in 2014 polls. But the seat fell vacant after Babul Supriyo quit as the sitting MP.

The Bollywood playback singer-turned politician later joined the TMC and is likely to face a litmus test in Ballygunge assembly by-poll on the same day. Eyeing the about 50 per cent non-Bengali votes TMC chief fielded a celebrity candidate, whom the BJP has branded as ‘outsider’. Trying to shrug off the outsider tag, Shatrughan Sinha, despite his age, has worked hard and has done a good homework.

Besides arranging special screenings of his films – Kaala Patthar and Kalia to woo the vote bank of the colliery belt, he has tried to touch all the burning issues in his election campaigning like the fear of privatisation of world’s largest locomotive factory, CLW, closure and privatisation of mines of ECL, merger of nationalised banks, LICI, privatisation of railways, wage revision and PF of steel workers, coal workers to ultra local issues like evacuation notice served to 45 year-old Burnpur Riverside School, the largest CBSE school in West Burdwan district, failure to clear the bottlenecks so that the Burnpur airstrip of ISP starts commercial flight operations under Udan scheme.

“I have heard that the railways are handing over the premium properties like the AC lounges in Asansol and Durgapur station to private parties of New Delhi. Asansol division is one of best railway divisions in the country in terms of freight earning, but sadly faces privatisation in the coming years. So is the Asansol division of LICI, again one of the topmost profit- earning divisions in the country facing uncertainty as the centre plans to float IPO. My job at the parliament is to raise the voices against all the apathies if elected,”said Mr Sinha.

Two central public sector units have been closed since 2014 in Asansol – Hindustan Cables in Rupnarayanpur and Burn Standard in Burnpur, despite having a ruling party MP. Agnimitra Paul, the sitting MLA of Asansol South and BJP candidate finds it tough to answer these questions raised by the TMC and is targeting him as an outsider pitted against a ‘ghorer meye’. She said if elected she will try to set up a big hospital in Asansol.

Partha Mukherjee, CPM candidate hopes that the work of the red volunteers will help him immensely during the Covid period. “No other party, except the CPM can fight the issues of price rise and saving the CPSUs of Asansol in LS,” he claimed. TMC is also banking on its popular social schemes like Kanyashree, Lakhsmi Bhandar, Rupashree, free ration etc. This time, the TMC is better positioned in Asansol North, Baraboni, Jamuria, Pandaveswar and Raniganj seats.

The BJP is better placed in Kulti and slightly ahead in Asansol South, poll observers feel. There have been 17.36 lakhs voters and 2,102 polling booths in Asansol. Due to extreme heat and the month of Ramzan it is expected that the polling percentage will be low tomorrow.