Lok Sabha elections 2019: In West Bengal’s Kanthi constituency, Sisir Adhikari will try to retain Trinamool control

The CPI(M) dominated the Kanthi Lok Sabha till 1999 when Trinamool’s Nitish Sengupta defeated its candidate. The Left party’s Prasanta Pradhan won in the next Lok Sabha election in 2004.

The Trinamool Congress’ Sisir Kumar Adhikari is the sitting member of Parliament from West Bengal’s Kanthi Lok Sabha seat.

A replica of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) installed by the Election Commission of India to create awareness about voting. (PTI file photo)

The CPI(M) dominated the Kanthi Lok Sabha till 1999 when Trinamool’s Nitish Sengupta defeated its candidate. The Left party’s Prasanta Pradhan won in the next Lok Sabha election in 2004.

But Sisir Adhikari, also the former Union minister of rural development in the Manmohan Singh government, wrested the Kanthi Lok Sabha seat from the CPI(M) leader Prasanta Pradhan in 2009 and Tapas Sinha in 2014.

Read: All you need to know about West Bengal

The ruling Trinamool Congress has renominated Sisir Adhikari, who played a major role in the Nandigram anti-land acquisition stir, for the Lok Sabha election 2019 from Kanthi seat.

Voting in Kanthi will be held on May 12 during the sixth round of the seventh-phase Lok Sabha election. The result will be declared on May 23.

State: West Bengal

Name of the Lok Sabha constituency: Kanthi

Polling date: May 12

Sitting MP, party: Sisir Adhikari, Trinamool Congress

Winning margin in 2014: 229,490

Runner up name, party: Tapas Sinha, CPI(M)

Number of voters in 2014: 1,290,811

Percentage of votes polled in 2014: 86.61%

Number of women voters in 2014: 626,560

Number of polling booths in 2014: 1843