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35 Bengal seats go to polls in last phase amid spike in Covid-19 infections
Four candidates succumbed to Covid-19 till Wednesday and several others, including Union minister Babul Supriyo, tested positive for the viral infection.
As a sharp spike in coronavirus infections created panic in Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (TMC) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) geared up for the eighth and last phase of polling on Thursday at 35 assembly seats in three districts and parts of Kolkata.
There will be elections in six seats in Malda, 11 each in Murshidabad and Birbhum and seven in the state capital. Fresh polling will also be held at booth No 126 in the Sitalkuchi constituency of Cooch Behar district where four men were killed in firing by central armed police forces (CAPF) during an alleged attack on the forces when voting was in progress on April 10.
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the Bengal elections with the turnout of voters going down in the seventh phase on April 26.
In Malda, Samir Ghosh, an independent candidate from the Baishnabnagar seat that goes to polls on Thursday, died of Covid-19 on Monday. In Murshidabad, Pradip Kumar Nandi, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) candidate from Jangipur and Rezaul Haque, the Congress candidate from Samserganj died earlier this month. Polls were to be held in these constituencies in the seventh phase but the Election Commission (EC) rescheduled the date to May 16. Kajal Sinha, the TMC candidate from Khardah in North 24 Parganas district, died days after polls were held on April 22.
On Tuesday, Bengal reported 16,403 new coronavirus infections and 73 deaths. Of these, 3708 cases and 24 deaths were reported in Kolkata. There has been a 75% rise in the daily count of Covid-19 cases in Bengal since the polls were announced on February 26. The state had 100,615 active cases till Wednesday morning.
Elections in Bengal’s 294 seats are being held in an unprecedented eight-phase exercise. The BJP, which set a record by winning 18 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, has sworn to oust the Mamata Banerjee government by winning more than 200 seats.
In Kolkata, winning seats is a challenge for the BJP as it managed the least inroads in terms of votes in recent elections. The seven seats going to the polls in north and central Kolkata are Chowringhee, Entally, Beliaghata, Jorasanko, Shyampukur, Manicktala and Cossipore-Belgachhia.
At Chowringhee, senior TMC Lok Sabha member Sudip Bandopadhyay’s wife Nayna Bandopadhyay, an actress-turned-politician who won the seat in the 2014 by-polls and 2016 polls, is facing Devdutta Maji of the BJP. Maji, who is president of the far-Right Hindu outfit Singha Bahini, said, “I am confident about victory.”
At Shyampukur, minister Shashi Panja, a doctor and daughter-in-law of former Union minister Ajit Panja, is contesting for the third time. The BJP has fielded Sandipan Biswas, who left the ruling party in January. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP was ahead in this seat by around 2000 votes and Biswas said the trend will give dividends to him.
At Jorasanko, where Kolkata’s business community and Hindi-speaking people have a sizeable presence, the BJP has fielded its popular civic body councillor Meena Devi Purohit, who also served as the city’s deputy mayor, against the TMC’s Vivek Gupta, a businessman-turned-politician. “I am into politics for 25 years. People’s enthusiasm during campaign made it apparent that the BJP has an advantage over others,” said Purohit.
In Murshidabad, where the Muslim population (66.28%) is the highest among all districts, the Congress still controls some parts of its old fort despite the TMC’s overwhelming growth. Three-time Congress MLA Manoj Chakraborty is defending his Berhampore seat against the TMC’s Narugopal Mukherjee. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, TMC was ahead of the BJP in 18 of the 22 assembly segments in Murshidabad. Berhampore was one of the exceptions.
A close aide of state Congress president and local Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Chakraborty said, “Local voters know that it is Congress that stood by them through thick and thin.”
In the adjacent district of Malda, which has Bengal’s second-largest Muslim population (51.27%), successors of iconic Congress leader and Union minister A B A Ghani Khan Choudhury still control parts of the district either for Congress or the TMC?
At Malda’s Sujapur, where 90% residents are Muslims, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is an issue that all parties used during campaign to keep the BJP at bay. In this seat, Khan Choudhury’s relative Isha Khan Choudhury, the outgoing legislator, is contesting against TMC’s Abdul Gani and Sheikh Jiauddin of the BJP.
Mausam Noor, Isha Khan Choudhury’s cousin and district TMC president is campaigning for Gani. “Although born in Sujapur, I grew up in Kolkata. Mamata Banerjee has put her faith in me. The Congress did nothing for the constituency. I will surely win,” said Gani.
Known for political violence, Birbhum is the only district where polls in all seats are being held in a single phase amid tight security. The EC has deployed 224 companies of CAPF in Birbhum.
The EC also ordered that Anubrata Mondal, the TMC district president, be kept under surveillance from 5 pm on Tuesday till April 30. On Wednesday afternoon, Mondal’s car sped away from a moving convoy and he managed to move freely for two hours before CAPF personnel caught up with him at the famous Tarapith Temple where the leader offered prayers.
In Birbhum, Muslims comprise 37.06% of the population.
Though the BJP could not win any seat in Birbhum in the 2016 assembly polls, it grew exponentially in several parts after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Voters feel that the saffron camp will pose a challenge to the TMC at Suri, Dubrajpur and Bolpur constituencies.
Anup Saha, the BJP candidate from Dubrajpur, said, “Corruption and violence by local TMC leaders has changed the ground reality. We will win this seat.”
