Asansol Lok Sabha election result 2019: BJP's Babul Supriyo leads leaving Moonmoon Sen behind

The constituency of Asansol saw a star-studded fight with Moonmoon Sen from the Trinamool Congress and Babul Supriyo from the Bharatiya Janata Party. The exit polls had shown that incumbent MP Supriyo will lose the fight from his constituency. However, initial trends show that Supriyo is leading to regain power from the constituency.

But the fight to the finish wasn’t all that starry.

While mudslinging in politics is usual, Asansol was a constituency that was in the spotlight for having been a victim of communal violence. Riots had erupted in March 2018 on Ram Navami. Even today, the violence is at the core of political campaigning in the city.

Workers from TMC and BJP had a clash on polling day on April 29 with incumbent BJP MP Supriyo’s car vandalized during the clash. However, that’s not all. The Election Commission had also registered a case against Supriyo for having a heated argument with polling officials and forcibly entering a voting booth. After the violence, the BJP had also requested for re-polls in parts of Asansol.

The industrial area of Asansol, along with neighbouring Durgapur, is one of India’s premier industrial zones and house two steel plants of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) – Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) and IISCO Steel Plant (ISP). In spite of that, the issue of employment has been on people’s minds. Illegal mining, which is common in the area, was stalled during the elections, putting thousands of miners out of jobs. According to a PTI report, these miners had planned to vote NOTA as a sign of protest.