West Bengal: TMC's Krishna Kalyani To Contest From Raiganj (image-X/ikrishnakalyani)Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Krishna Kalyani has been nominated from West Bengal’s Raiganj Lok Sabha seat for the upcoming elections.
Mr. Kalyani has had an interesting political career. He had joined the BJP ahead of the 2021 assembly elections. After winning the Raiganj seat, Mr. Kalyani quit the party and rejoined TMC in October. Despite the BJP asking him to resign from his post, Mr. Kalyani did not.
In May 2023, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax (IT) department conducted raids lasting 30 hours at multiple locations, including his residence in Raiganj and office connected to Mr. Kalyani, after they received complaints about “disproportionate assets” against him. The central probe agencies seized unaccounted cash worth Rs 1.73 crore and jewellery worth Rs 1 crore. His brother, Pradeep Kalyani, however, alleged that the raids by central probe agencies had underlying political motives.
In 2022, MLA Mr. Kalyani was appointed as the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the state assembly.
Ahead of the elections, TMC’s Mr. Kalyani has promised to ease traffic congestion in Raiganj town by constructing a Raiganj-Barsoi road (around 20 km) connecting West Bengal and Bihar. He is the owner of Kalyani Solvex Ltd.
In the past, the Congress party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has secured the seat in different years. In 2009, the seat went to Congress candidate Deepa Dasmunsi, who won 4.5 lakh votes. In the next elections, CPI (M)’s Mohammed Salim won the seat, beating Dasmunsi by a small margin. Salim secured 29 percent of the votes, while Dasmunsi won 28 percent of the votes. In the 2019 elections, BJP candidate Debasree Chaudhari secures the victory with 5.1 lakh votes, beating CPI (M)’s Salim (4.5 lakh votes) and Congress’ Dasmunsi (83,000 votes).
The Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal comprises the Vidhan Sabhas of Islampur and Goalpokhar. Chakulla, Karandighi, Hemtabad, and Kaliaganj. Both Hemtabad and Kaliaganj are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC). As per the 2011 census, the Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency has around 41.7 percent Muslim voters, 29.3 percent SC voters, and 5 percent ST voters.