Nine Lok Sabha constituencies in Kolkata, its nearby suburbs, and the Sundarbans are going to the polls in the last phase of elections in West Bengal, scheduled on June 1.
The region is considered a bastion of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), and the State’s ruling party had won all the nine seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. In fact, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has never won eight of the nine seats, the only exception being Dum Dum, where BJP leader Tapan Sikdar won in the late 1990s.
The nine constituencies going to the polls are Kolkata Uttar, Kolkata Dakshin, Jadavpur, Diamond Harbour, Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, and Mathurapur. The last phase not only includes political heavyweights but also constituencies that have become a prestige fight between the TMC and the BJP.
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The constituency of Jaynagar, Mathurapur and parts of Basirhat fall under the Sundarbans, a vast group of islands interspersed by a network of rivers and creeks, with millions of people battling cyclones and sea level rise.
Basirhat, where the riverine island of Sandeshkhali is situated, has been at the centre of politics in the State over the past few months. The allegation of sexual assault and land grab at Sandeshkhali, allegedly against a section of local TMC leaders, has sent shock waves not only in West Bengal but across the country. The BJP is pinning its hopes on 30-year-old Rekha Patra, a local woman from Sandeshkhali, who had raised the allegation against the TMC leaders. Ms. Patra, who has been lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for her bravery, is contesting against the TMC’s Hazi Nurul Islam and the Communist Party of India-Marxist’s (CPI-M) Nirapada Sardar.
Another high profile contest is expected at Diamond Harbour, where TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is seeking his third term in the Lok Sabha. Mr. Banerjee, widely considered to hold the second position in the State’s ruling party after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has nurtured it as a model constituency over the past 10 years and speaks of the ‘Diamond Harbour model of development’. Mr. Banerjee is contesting against the BJP’s Abhijit Das and the CPI(M)’s Pratikur Rahaman.
The Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat in the southern suburbs of the city has thrown up an interesting three-cornered contest between TMC youth leader Sayoni Ghosh, CPI(M) youth leader Srijan Bhattacharya, and the BJP’s Anirban Ganguly. The region, once a bastion of the Left parties, has been electing TMC MPs since 2009 and the State’s ruling party has changed the MP nominee after every five years.
Dum Dum, another constituency in the suburbs, located in the northern fringes of the metropolis, has veteran TMC leader and three-time MP Saugata Roy seeking a re-election from the seat. He is facing the challenge from the BJP’s Shilbhadra Dutta and the CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakraborty.
Kolkata Dakshin Lok Sabha seat, which has elected Ms. Banerjee to the Lok Sabha on several occasions, is witnessing mostly an all-women contest with the TMC’s Mala Roy contesting against the BJP’s Debashree Chaudhuri and the CPI(M)‘s Saira Shah Halim. While Ms. Roy is a sitting MP from the constituency, Debashree Chaudhuri had won the 2019 election from the Raiganj Lok Sabha seat.
Kolkata Uttar is up for a contest between political heavyweights, where nine-time MP and the TMC’s leader in the Lok Sabha, Sudip Banerjee, is contesting against the BJP’s candidate, Tapas Roy. Mr. Roy, a three-time TMC MLA, quit the party two months ago and has run an enthusiastic campaign against the TMC veteran. The Congress party has fielded a veteran leader its former State president, Pradip Bhattacharya, for the seat.
Four of the nine seats — Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Basirhat, and Diamond Harbour — are rural constituencies, while the remaining five are urban.
As in the rest of the State, the TMC’s campaign was centred around the Chief Minister and Mr. Abhishek Banerjee. Ms. Banerjee has held roadshows in and around Kolkata, walking several kilometres on foot. For the BJP, the Prime Minister held several rallies, including one roadshow in north Kolkata.
The campaign had to be suspended for at least two days due to the impact of cyclone Remal. The issues of the repair of earthen embankments in the Sundarbans, and crumbling infrastructure in Kolkata, has been raised by Opposition parties. The TMC leadership, including the CM, claimed there had been fewer causalities and less damage due to an alert administration.
Along with the issues of denial of Central funds and the violence in Sandeshkhali, Ms. Banerjee’s remarks on a few Hindu monks, and the Calcutta High Court’s order setting aside the inclusion of 77 Muslim communities in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category have emerged as the highlights of the election campaign.
The last phase, which will have the maximum number of constituencies in the State going to polls in a day, will see the deployment of 1,020 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces.
