In this year’s West Bengal election, Bally is an Assembly constituency in the Howrah district of West Bengal, which falls under the Howrah Lok Sabha constituency.

In the West Bengal Assembly election of 2016, the constituency had a total of 1,12,278 registered voters. Voter turnout in Bally in the previous Assembly election of 2016 was 70.20 percent.

Also See: West Bengal 2021: Battleground for BJP and TMC

In the West Bengal Assembly election of 2016, Baishali Dalmiya, who was then in the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) had won the Bally constituency. She had garnered 52,702 votes as against 37,299 votes won by her closest rival Saumendranath Bera of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Bera was defeated by a margin of 15,403 votes or 13.73 percent.

Also Read: Turncoats from TMC including Rajeeb Banerjee headed to New Delhi in a chartered flight to join BJP

In the assembly election of 2011 as well, the Bally seat was held by the TMC. In that election, Sultan Singh was declared winner after securing 87,408 votes. CPM’s Kanika Ganguly was the runner up in the contest over the seat. Ganguly had lost by a thin margin of 6,600 votes or 6.31 percent. The Bally seat would now be contested by a candidate who had recently defected to BJP.

Also Read: Evolution of Anti defection laws in India- an overview

Baishali Dalmiya had jumped boat into BJP, in the window of political opportunism, when many leaders with charges and accusations in cases like Sharada scam had switched over to the saffron camp.

Also See: Would West Bengal election really be a three-way fight after the defections?

West Bengal Assembly election this year, is being held in eight phases, up from seven last time, which began with polling for 30 seats on March 27 in first-phase. The second phase of West Bengal’s assembly elections was conducted on April 01 & covered 30 constituencies. It would be followed by the third phase on April 06 for 31 seats, the fourth on April 10 for 44 constituencies, the fifth on April 17 for 45 seats, sixth for 43 seats on April 22, seventh phase on April 26 for 36 seats and last and eighth phase would be on April 29 for 35 seats.

The results of the election will be declared after vote counting on May 02.