Eight Lok Sabha seats spread across five districts of West Bengal will go to polls under the fourth phase of elections scheduled for May 13. The constituencies located across south Bengal will see political heavyweights such as State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury contesting from Baharampur, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders Mahua Moitra contesting from Krishnanagar and Shatrughan Sinha from Asansol respectively.
The BJP candidates in fray in the fourth phase include former State BJP president Dilip Ghosh from Bardhaman Durgapur, S.S. Ahluwalia from Asansol constituency and Jagannath Sarkar from the Ranagath seat. The polling on May 13 will also see two world cup-winning cricketers Yusuf Pathan and Kirti Azad testing the political pitch from Baharampur and Bardhaman Durgapur respectively. Both of them have been nominated by the TMC.
Also read: Updates from the Lok Sabha polls on May 09, 2024
The fourth phase will see a total of 75 candidates in the fray across these eight seats. The BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have campaigned for BJP candidates Amrita Roy and Dilip Ghosh. Ms. Roy, who hails from the Krishnanagar Royal family, is the richest among them with total assets worth ₹554 crore declared in her election affidavit. She is contesting against TMC’s Mahua Moitra. The Prime Minister and the Home Minister have also campaigned for Mr. Ghosh, who is pitted against the TMC’s Mr. Kirti Azad. Mr. Ghosh had won the last Lok Sabha polls from Medinipur but this time he was nominated to contest polls from Bardhaman Durgapur.
The Baharampur Lok Sabha seat in Murshidabad district has thrown up a triangular contest with Mr. Chowdhury, a five-time MP defending his fiefdom, from TMC and BJP candidates. Out of the eight seats, the TMC won four seats in 2019, the BJP has won three seats and the Congress one seat. After BJP MP from Asansol Babul Supriyo resigned and joined TMC, bypolls were held at Asansol. TMC candidate Shatrughan Sinha won the seat in 2022 with a margin of over two lakh votes. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had campaigned for the party candidates extensively across these five districts.
Change of candidate
Birbhum, where both the seats were won by the TMC in 2019, has thrown up an interesting contest. At Birbhum, the BJP had to change its candidate at the eleventh hour. The candidature of BJP’s nominee Debasish Dhar was cancelled during the scrutiny and the BJP nominated Debtanu Bhattacharya to contest the polls from the seat. Mr. Bhattacharya is contesting against three-time TMC MP Satabadi Roy.
The BJP had to change the candidate from Asansol seat after there was a lot of criticism in social circles after the party fielded Bhojpuri singer and actor Pawan Singh, some of whose songs were considered derogatory to Bengali women. The BJP has nominated two-term party MP S.S. Ahluwalia from the seat. Though a local from Asansol, Mr. Ahluwalia has represented Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat (2014-19) and adjoining Bardhaman Durgapur Lok Sabha seat (2019-24). He will be contesting against TMC candidate Shatrughan Sinha.
There are a varied range of issues dominating the elections from the Citizenship ( Amendment) Act, particularly in the two constituencies bordering Nadia district — Ranaghat and Krishnanagar. The issues of closed industries and flight of capital are crucial to Asansol and Bardhaman Durgapur. Inter and intra-party violence have dominated politics in Birbhum where the two Lok Sabha seats, Birbhum and Bolpur, are going to polls. Bolpur, which also is home to Rabindranath Tagore’s Visva Bharati University, is the seat of culture and learning in the State.
About 1.5 crore voters will be eligible to exercise their franchise across the eight seats spread across five districts in the State. Elections to 10 seats across north Bengal and Malda and Murshidabad district have been concluded in the first three phases in Bengal. Elections to 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal are held across seven phases in the State.
