Priyanka Tibrewal knows that this is by far the biggest electoral battle of her political career. With 16 days left for her bypoll contest against West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for the Bhabanipur assembly seat in Kolkata, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate hit the campaign trail on Tuesday to woo the voters. News18 was on the ground to witness how people are responding to her.
Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee is contesting the bypoll as she has to get elected to the state assembly within six months of taking charge as chief minister on May 5. She lost the Nandigram assembly seat to her former protégé Suvendu Adhikari, now with the BJP, in the April-May state elections. Bhabanipur has been a Trinamool bastion and was won twice by Mamata in the past.
Tibrewal is aware of this history. The BJP candidate, surrounded by her security personnel, started her campaign at 8am on Tuesday, having filed her nomination the previous day. The constituency has a sizeable BJP support base, mainly comprising Gujaratis, Sikhs and Biharis.