The BJP will face another challenge on Wednesday in the bypolls to four Assembly segments, three of which were won by the party in the 2021 elections.

The by-elections willbe held in Ranaghat Dakshin (Nadia), Bagda (North 24-Parganas), Raiganj (NorthDinajpur) and Maniktala(Calcutta).

For the battered and bruised BJP in Bengal, the battle is to redeem itself in the state at a time the morale of the party workers hit anadir after the setback in the general election. The BJP’s tally came down to 12 from 18 five years ago.

The Trinamool Congress, on the other hand, is aiming to ensure a clean sweep in the four segments.

Ahead of the polls, Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said: “We will win all the four seats. People have given a clear mandate in our favour in the Lok Sabha poll and voters in these four constituencies will give the same verdict this time.”

In a last ditch attempt to shore up the morale of the BJP’s foot soldiers before the battle, Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly, said: “There would be no change in the outcome and the TMC will lose at least three of the segments.”

He, however, warned BJP activists that the TMC would try to “loot votes” and urged them to be vigilant to minimise the possibility of any electoral malpractice.

Around 10 lakh people are eligible to cast their votes at 1,097 polling stations, for which the Election Commission of India has deployed 70 companies of central forces. “We will try to maintain the track record of the Lok Sabha polls, which passed off without any major complaints on electoral malpractice,” said a source on the poll panel.

Although the ruling party always has an edge in bypolls in Bengal, a political observer said that the battle in all the four Assembly segments is likely to be intense.

“The BJP’s seat count came down in the Lok Sabha polls, but the party’s vote share has been above 38 per cent.... Don’t forget that the BJP bagged more than 45 per cent votes in Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagda in the Lok Sabha polls. The battle is likely to be intense,” said the observer.

These three seats were won by the BJP in 2021 Assembly polls. But the MLAs — Krishna Kalyani (Raiganj), Biswajit Das (Bagda) and Mukutmani Adhikari (Ranaghat Dakshin) — defected to Trinamool and resigned later to contest the Lok Sabha polls as the ruling party nominees. The bypoll for Maniktala has been necessitated by the death of Trinamool MLA Sadhan Pande.

“The TMC candidates in two of the constituencies, Raiganj and Ranaghat Dakshin, are turncoats and the people know about their opportunistic politics.... They were taught lessons in the Lok Sabha polls as all of them lost. They would have the same fate this time,” said Adhikari, who campaigned extensively for the BJP nominees in the bypolls.

In Bagda, the TMC has nominated Matua leader and party’s Rajya Sabha member Mamatabala Thakur’s daughter Madhuparna Thakur, whereas in Maniktala, Supti, Pande’s wife, has been given the ticket.

In Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagda, the outcome will critically hinge on the Matua vote bank and both the BJP and Trinamool have been trying to woo the community.

In Raiganj, Trinamool was trailing by 46,663 votes in the Lok Sabha polls, but the prospect of Kalyani is brighter in the bypoll as the Congress candidate Mohit Sengupta is likely to corner a part of anti-TMC votes.

The TMC was ahead of the BJP by a slender margin of 3,500-plus votes in the Lok Sabha polls in the Maniktala segment of the Calcutta North constituency. “The fight will be intense, but the TMC clearly has an edge because it’s a bypoll,” said an observer.