Babul Supriyo: CPI(M) nominee showed ‘no class’ in bypoll defeat

Kolkata: Ballygunge assembly seat byelection winner Babul Supriyo of the Trinamool Congress and runner-up Saira Shah Halim of the CPI(M) entered into a battle of words on social media on Sunday, with the former BJP MP attacking her for showing “no class” after defeat and terming the Left party’s campaign as “below the belt”.

Taking to Twitter to retaliate, Halim said that her party believes in a classless society where the rich and the poor will not be differentiated by the wealth and property they own. “I am relieved that we won Ballygunge defeating the vile, dirty, often below the belt, personal & false propaganda of @ CPIMWESTBENGAL,” Supriyo tweeted.

Supriyo, who joined the TMC in September last year after being dropped as a minister of state from the Narendra Modi government, claimed that BJP candidate Keya Ghosh had her deposit forfeited for getting less than 6 per cent of the total votes cast.

The newly-elected MLA from the prestigious Ballygunge seat in south Kolkata earlier tweeted, “Even after a filthy deplorable campaign full of lies & deceit @CPIMWESTBENGAL & Saira Shah Halim shows no class, forget shame.”

He also sought to remind the CPI(M) that it has no representation in the West Bengal assembly with the Left Front not winning any seat in the 2021 elections in the state. Reacting to Supriyo’s tweets, Halim said, “We believe in a classless society, where rich and poor will not be differentiated by the wealth and property they own. Anyone who judges me as having ‘no class’, knows what he is fighting against,” she tweeted.

Accusing the CPI(M) of resorting to a communal campaign in the byelection to Ballygunge, where more than 50 per cent of the electorate are from the minority community, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “It may have got some votes, but that does not mean a revival of the CPI(M) is on the cards.” Ghosh said that the TMC leadership will look into how the Left party got more votes than what it had bagged in the last elections.