West Bengal Assembly election 2021, Nisith Pramanik profile: BJP Dinhata candidate to face TMC’s Udayan Guha

BJP has fielded sitting Lok Sabha MP from Cooch Behar Nisith Pramanik from the Dinhata Assembly constituency in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls.

Pramanik is contesting against two-time Trinamool Congress MLA Udyan Guha from the constituency, which will go to polls in the fourth of eight phases on 10 April.

He started as a youth leader of the TMC, but during the panchayat elections in the state in 2018, he fielded about 300 candidates as Independents against TMC candidates and several of them won. He joined BJP in Delhi in February last year, following which the party fielded him from the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha constituency in 2019, a seat that was won by TMC in the 2016 by-election. Despite being pitted against the far more experienced TMC candidate Paresh Chandra Adhikari, Pramanik emerged victorious with a margin of about 54,000 votes in the 2019 general election.

Pramanik was born on 17 January, 1986, in Dinhata and went on to attain Bachelors of Computer Applications (BCA). Pramanik has serious criminal charges against him, such as one case of attempt to murder, a case of attempt to outrage the modesty of woman, three cases of criminal intimidation and two cases of rioting with weapons. There are also three cases of voluntarily causing grievous hurt with weapons against him, along with cases of theft and trespassing.

The Dinhata Assembly constituency lies in the Cooch Behar district, and is a part of the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha constituency.

Elections for the West Bengal Assembly will be held in eight phases, up from seven last time, beginning with polling for 30 seats on 27 March. The second phase of West Bengal's assembly elections has been scheduled for 1 April and will cover 30 constituencies, followed by the third phase on 6 April for 31 seats, the fourth on 10 April for 44 constituencies, the fifth on 17 April for 45 seats, sixth for 43 seats on 22 April, seventh phase on 26 April for 36 seats and last and eighth phase on 29 April for 35 seats.

The results of the election will be declared on 2 May.