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In Bengal’s rice bowl, TMC seeks to keep BJP out
Katwa is among the eight seats going to the polls in East Burdwan district, which is known as West Bengal’s rice bowl, in the sixth phase of polling on April 22
Katwa assembly constituency in West Bengal’s East Burdwan district was an exception during the 34-year Left Front rule in the state. It was a Congress bastion despite the success of land reforms introduced by the Marxists.
“[Chief minister] Mamata Banerjee changed the scenario after coming to power in 2011,” said Haradhan Debnath, a rice trader in Katwa. Debnath added until the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) outdid the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Katwa assembly segment in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, one could not have imagined 5,000 people following Mithun Chakraborty as he campaigned in the town on a sultry afternoon on April 16.
Chakraborty, a star campaigner for the BJP in the Bengal assembly polls, led a roadshow with Shyama Majumdar in tow. Majumdar, the BJP candidate from Katwa, is a former Congress leader. Sunil Mondal, who won the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Burdwan East on TMC’s ticket and joined the BJP in December, also accompanied Chakraborty. Amar Ram, a councillor, was also part of the roadshow days after switching to the BJP.
Katwa is among the eight seats going to the polls in East Burdwan district, which is known as West Bengal’s rice bowl, in the sixth phase of polling on April 22.
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Rabindranath Chatterjee, the TMC candidate from Katwa, won the seat four times on Congress’s ticket. He joined the TMC before the 2016 assembly polls and managed to retain the seat for the fifth time. Majumdar, who was then with the Congress, lost by a slim margin of 908 votes. “Only the BJP can defeat the TMC in this seat,” said Majumdar.
Residents said Congress’s Prabir Ganguly may hurt the TMC if he manages to get even a fraction of the 23% Muslim votes with help from allies Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), and Indian Secular Front.
Chatterjee is confident of winning the seat for the sixth time. “The TMC’s tally came down in 2019 because Sunil Mondal...never visited Katwa after winning the Burdwan East seat in 2014. Local voters were angry with him. Now that he has joined the BJP, the situation is in our favour.”
In the adjacent Mongalkot seat, Muslims account for 40% of the voters. TMC’s Apurba Chowdhury and the CPI(M)’s Shahjahan Chowdhury, who defeated the former by only 126 votes in 2011, are locked in a tough contest once again.
Minister Siddiqullah Chowdury, a local resident who won the seat in 2016 by defeating Shahjahan Chowdhury by more than 12,000 votes, contested from East Burdwan’s Manteswar, where polls were held on April 17.
TMC leaders admit that the minister was forced to leave his home turf because of infighting in the party. Rana Pratap Goswami, the BJP candidate from Mongalkot, said the harassment faced by the minister may create a divide among local Muslims and help him.
Anwar Ali Mondal, a local farmer. said Muslims in Mongalkot were surprised when Siddiqullah Chowdhury opted to leave his seat. “But there is very little possibility of our votes going to the BJP.”
In Purbasthali South constituency, Muslims comprise around 20 % of the population. Minister Swapan Debnath, who won the seat in 2011 and 2016, is contesting against Abhijit Bhattacharya (Congress) and the BJP’s Rajib Bhowmick there. In 2016, Debnath defeated Bhattacharya by 37,666 votes while Bhowmick bagged only 19,003 votes.
Blowmick is confident of winning as the BJP came second in this assembly segment in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls mainly because of the allegations of corruption against a section of TMC panchayat leaders. “The corruption issue, coupled with the fact that a sizeable section of the population comprises families of erstwhile refugees from Bangladesh, is going to help the BJP win this seat,” said Bhowmick.
Swapan Debnath said the BJP is his principal adversary but added people have benefitted immensely from the welfare schemes of the TMC government. “They will vote for us.”
Pradip Bhattacharya, a resident of Samudragarh, credited the TMC government for welfare schemes. “...people have benefitted from these. Yet, it is also true that the BJP has improved its local organisation.”
In Purbasthali North constituency, BJP’s Gobardhan Das is making his electoral debut against the CPI(M) lawmaker Pradip Saha. TMC’s Tapan Chatterjee, who lost the 2016 polls, has been fielded again.
Swapan Bhattacharya, who contested the seat on a BJP ticket in 2016, has since joined TMC.
Chatterjee said he is confident of winning the seat again as the votes Bhattacharya got in 2016 will be shifted to the TMC. Saha said divisions in the BJP will ultimately help the CPI(M).
Joydeb Samanta, a local farmer, said unless there is a huge shift in votes from the CPI (M) to the BJP, something that happened in 2019, the TMC seems to be ahead in the race.
