Bharatiya Janata Party’s Howrah Lok Sabha candidate Rathin Chakraborty slammed incumbent MP Prasun Banerjee for not doing any development work in the constituency. He said, “ TMC’s Prasun Banerjee has spent the last five years sleeping like a ‘Kumbkaran’ and has not done a single development work in Howrah”.
Howrah is one of the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies of West Bengal, which will go on a poll on May 20 in the 5th phase of the election. The state-ruling TMC has given the ticket to seasoned Prasun Banerjee, who has been winning the constituency for the last two polls. However, the decision to refield Parun has caused a major rift in the party. Since then, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has distanced herself from her younger brother, Babun Banerjee, after he voiced his dissatisfaction with the party’s decision to field Prasun from the Howrah Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal. On the other hand, the BJP has fielded former Howrah Municipal Corporation mayor Rathin Chakraborty to contest against Prasun Banerjee, while the CPIM has named Sabyasachi Chatterjee.
During his campaign, BJP’s Rathin Chakraborty attacked outgoing Trinamool MP Prasun Banerjee by calling him ‘Kumbhakarna’. After worshipping at the local Shitala Mata temple in Chaudharypara, Ramrajatala, along with the workers, Rathin started his campaign. After that, he started doing ‘Jansampark’ and took information from the people of Howrah about the problems of the city. During this, he addressed the outgoing MP Prasun Banerjee as ‘Kumbhakarna’ and said that the outgoing MP from Howrah spent five years sleeping, and now, when the elections have come, he is seen in the city. Rathin added that Prasun Babu did not even take the name of Howrah in Parliament in the last five years. Howrah’s roads are bad, and all civic services have been disrupted. The city has turned into a garbage dump.
On the other hand, TMC’s sitting MP, Prasun Banerjee, retorted and said that this was his illusion. There is no point in saying these things before the vote. What I have done is available on the Parliament web portal. If necessary, download all the information from that portal and make it available to the general public. The allegations he is making have no basis. He said that he repeatedly demanded an underpass from the railway to Santragachi-Baksara, but the central government has not done any work till now. He also alleged Rathin and said that during his tenure, he ruined Howrah Nagar Nigam.
In the 2019 General Assembly Elections, Howrah witnessed a fiercely contested battle, and the constituency witnessed a 74.78% voter turnout. TMC’s Prasun Banerjee won the 2019 general election with 5,76,499 votes. The runner-up was Rantidev Sengupta of the BJP party, who got 473016 votes. The margin of victory was 1,04,043 votes. The constituency has a total of 1633925 electoral votes.
