The Madarihat Assembly segment in the Alipurduars parliamentary seat has recorded a low polling percentage in the general election held in the constituency on April 19.

Madarihat is the home turf of Manoj Tigga, the two-time BJP MLA who his party nominated for the Lok Sabha elections this time.

According to data available with the district administration, 79.76 per cent of the voters in Alipurduars constituency exercised their franchise on Friday.

“If we consider the polling trends in the Madarihat Assembly segment, the poll percentage was 78.06 per cent in 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 78.46 percent in the 2021 Assembly elections,” said a source.

This time, poll percentage in Tigga's Madarihat Assembly segment in the Lok Sabha polls is 73.81 per cent, around 5 per cent lower than the earlier years.

Trinamool Congress leaders, working on various poll-related data in the district to assess the votes cast in their party's favour, have quickly picked up the issue.

Tigga, they said, has been the MLA of Madarihat for the past eight years. Citing the poor voting percentage from his Assembly seat, Trinamool leaders have alleged that people are upset over his non-performance.

“That is why many people have refrained from voting. The BJP MLA should clarify why turnout of voters was low at the booths in his own Assembly seat,” said Nakul Sonar, the chairman of the Trinamul Cha Sramik Union.

The saffron camp, however, came up with a counter. They claimed that a section of migrant workers, originally from the Madarihat Assembly seat, didn’t return home to cast their votes.

Speaking on this issue, Tigga, also the party's district president in Alipurduar, said: "In my constituency, there are four closed tea gardens and some sick gardens. Many people from these gardens work in other states and didn’t come to vote. That is the only reason for a comparatively lower percentage of voting. The interpretations of the Trinamool Congress are baseless.”