With the Election Commission on Sunday announcing June 19 as the date for the by-election to the Kaliganj Assembly seat in Nadia district of West Bengal, the stage is set for a crucial electoral battle ahead of next year’s Assembly elections in the state.

While the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) would be keen to continue its winning streak – it won all the six Assembly bypolls last year and even snatched Madirhat seat from the BJP – by retaining the seat, the opposition parties would be looking for a chink in the ruling party’s performance, which would give them a boost before the next year’s showdown.

Kaliganj Assembly seat had fallen vacant in February this year after the incumbent TMC MLA, Nasiruddin Ahmed, 70, died. In the last Assembly elections in 2021, Ahmed, known as Lal in TMC circles, had won by defeating BJP’s Abhijit Ghosh by a margin of 46,987 votes, with Congress’ Abdul Kasem coming a distant third.

That was Ahmed’s second win from the seat. He had won from Kaliganj in 2011, but lost to the Congress in 2016.

Before the TMC came to power in the state, the Left Front’s RSP and the Congress dominated the seat.

With the ruling TMC in the state facing teachers’ protest over the school job scam and the Supreme Court terminating jobs of over 25,000 teachers and non-teachers, the party could be closely evaluating its strategy to see the job scam’s fallout on its electoral prospects.

The main Opposition party, the BJP, on the other hand, would be keen to take advantage of the teachers’ protest, coupled with the Centre’s Operation Sindoor and Pahalgam terror attack, to sway the votes in its favour.

However, with the state BJP unit facing internal squabbles over the leadership issue, it would be interesting to see who they field from Kaliganj.

Along with Kaliganj, four assembly constituencies across Gujarat, Kerala and Punjab will go to vote. — Kadi and Bisabdar constituencies in Gujarat, Ludhiana West in Punjab, and Nilambur in Kerala.

The last date for filing nomination is June 2, and the counting of votes will take place on June 23.