Purba Medinipur:
After filing his nomination from Tamluk Lok Sabha seat, BJP candidate and former Calcutta High Court judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay on Saturday said he has respect for the opposition but it seems they are not very active or be present in the current election race.
“I don't underestimate them (the opposition) but I notice they are not on the ground. They are absent from the match,” he said.
BJP has fielded Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay from Tamluk, while TMC has fielded Debangshu Bhattacharya from Tamluk Lok Sabha seat.
TMC's Adhikari Dibyendu won from the Tamluk and polled 724,433 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. TMC defeated BJP Sidharthashankar Naskar who got 534268 votes. The TMC secured 50 percent.
Voting in the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat will take place on June 25 in phase 6. West Bengal, which sends 42 MPs to Parliament, will vote in all seven phases. Elections to six Lok Sabha seats in Bengal were held in the first two phases on April 19 and 26.
The elections for the remaining parliamentary seats will take place on May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the TMC won 34 seats in the state, while the BJP had to settle for just 2. The CPI (M) won 2 seats, while the Congress bagged 4.
In the 2019 general elections, the TMC dropped to 22 seats, while the BJP saw the lotus bloom on 18 seats. The Congress came behind and won only two seats.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)