Mamata Banerjee served as Member of Parliament (representative) from Dakshin seat in Kolkata for six terms between 1991 and 2011
Kolkata:
The political battleground in West Bengal appears to be gearing up for another intense face-off. The election will be held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1.
Here are 12 key assembly seats in the state to watch.
Kolkata South: The cosmopolitan seat in South Kolkata is considered a prestigious seat for the TMC as it is the legacy of party supremo Mamata Banerjee and it remains a Trinamool bastion with all seven parliamentary seats are within the party’s small circle. Mamata Banerjee served as MP from this seat for six consecutive terms from 1991 to 2011 until she wrested state power from the Left Front.
The BJP’s previous efforts to weaken Mamata Banerjee’s support in the region failed even after the TMC chief quit the assembly elections. While the TMC has fielded a repeat candidate, sitting MP Mala Roy, the BJP is yet to name her challenger.
Kolkata North: Sudip Bandyopadhyay, TMC’s parliamentary party leader in the Lok Sabha, is the sitting MP from the North Kolkata City constituency and has been renominated by the party. Sudip Bandyopadhyay had won the previous polls by over 1.27 lakh votes, defeating his closest rival from the BJP.
The BJP is yet to announce its contestant for the seat. However, Sudip Bandyopadhyay’s candidature was mired in controversy with some TMC leaders like Tapas Roy (who has now defected to the BJP) and Kunal Kunal Ghosh expressed his opposition to him.
Diamond Harbor: TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, a two-time MP from Diamond Harbor Lok Sabha constituency, is the repeat candidate from the seat this time. In 2019, he won the seat by more than 300,000 votes, receiving more than 56% of the vote.
In addition to the BJP, candidates from the left-wing Congress alliance and the Secular Front of India are also likely to remain in the electoral race.
Dumb mute: Dum Dum, a major industrial belt on the northern fringes of Kolkata, is yet another bastion of the TMC that has dominated it for the past 15 years. The TMC fielded veteran leader Saugata Roy, the sitting MP from Dum Dum, for a fourth consecutive term. In 2019, Roy defeated the BJP’s Samik Bhattacharya by over 53,000 votes. This seat is home to many industries.
Jadavpur: The Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency has a mix of urban and rural population, with part of it located in the southern suburbs of Kolkata and the rest in the rural areas of the neighboring South 24 Parganas district. The TMC won the seat in 2019 by defeating its BJP rivals by nearly three lakh votes and currently occupies six of the seven assembly seats. Bangal, which was won by the opposition ISF, is likely to receive considerable attention as it remains one of the violent hotspots in the 2023 panchayat polls.
Banggaon: Bangaon constituency is a scheduled caste reserved seat that has been grabbing media headlines for its demographics. The population of the constituency is mainly Matuas, a Bengali-speaking Namasudra Hindu sect who live in neighboring Bangladesh. The country suffers from religious persecution and the implementation of the CAA in this constituency affects the region. The bill remains a long-standing request from a significant portion of Matuas. Union Minister Shantanu Thakur, a prominent leader from Matua and the sitting MP from Bongaon, won the election in 2019 by a margin of over 100,000 votes won the state. He will be facing off against former BJP leader Biswajit Das of TMC.
Krishnangar: In 2019, expelled TMC MP Mahua Moitra won the Krishnanagar seat, another district with a large Matuas population, by polling over 63,000 votes. Accounting for 45% of the total votes. Mahua Moitra, considered one of the most outspoken TMC MPs, was expelled by cash last year on the recommendation of the Lok Sabha ethics committee over a challenge case.
Jagram: This central Bengal constituency reserved for ST forms an important part of the tribal belt of the state and encompasses the forest-covered area of the state, popularly known as Jangalmahal. The Red Brigades were once a bastion of the previous Left Front government but were ousted by the Trinamool Congress in 2014 following Maoist violence in the region from 2008 to 2011. The TMC’s victory proved short-lived as the seat disappeared as the BJP snatched power in 2019.
While the TMC is hoping to reverse its fortunes this time by fielding Santhali playwright Kalipada Soren, a Padma Shri and Sahitya Academy awardee, the BJP has a weak seat in the sitting MP pool. Kunar Hembram has yet to confirm its candidate after quitting the party earlier this month, citing “personal reasons”.
Balur Ghat: BJP Bengal unit president and sitting MP Sukanta Majumdar is contesting from this north Bengal seat for the second consecutive time. Majumdar will succeed TMC’s Biplab Mitra, who was a minister in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet in Bengal.
go to bank: The BJP’s Union junior minister Subhas Sarkar is seeking re-election from Bankura, while the TMC has fielded Arup Chakraborty, MP from Taldangra. It is one of the parliamentary parts of the Lok Sabha seat. A three-cornered battle is coming, with the CPI(M) ousting Nilanjan Dasgupta from the seat. The constituency has a sizeable tribal population and parts of it belong to Jangalmahal, a former Maoist stronghold.
Medinipur: Medinipur constituency was a bastion of the Communist Party of India until 2014 and was wrested from the TMC in 2019 by the BJP’s Dilip Ghosh, who had first won the seat in 2014. The TMC has fielded actress-turned-politician June Maliah, MLA from Medinipur segment, for the constituency. The party managed to recapture most of the constituencies in the 2021 parliamentary elections, winning six of the seven constituencies in the constituency.
Baharrampur: Baharrampur Lok Sabha constituency in central Bengal’s Murshidabad district is known to be the stronghold of Congress leader Adil Ranjan Chaudhry, who has won the seat comfortably five times.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
