SMOKE RINGS IN SAGA RDIGHI

The impending byelection in the Sagardighi assembly seat in West Bengal's Murshidabad district on February 27 is the latest platform on which the ruling Trinamool Congress and the principal opposition party BJP are facing off, with no one losing the chance to treat it as a crystal ball through which to gaze at the 2024 general election. Subrata Saha of the TMC, whose death in December 2022 necessitated the bypoll, had won the seat with a margin of over 50,000 votes in the 2021 assembly election.

- Romita Datta

But it can be a closer fight for the TMC this time around-its candidate Debashish Banerjee faces not just the BJP's Dilip Saha, but the Congress-appointed, Leftbacked beedi magnate Byron Biswas, owner of Jeet Beedi Manufacturing Company, as 30 companies of central forces keep vigil. The results will be declared on March 2.