Kolkata,With the heavyweights of all political parties fanning out to every nook and cranny of Bengal to woo the electorate, the razzle-dazzle of this electioneering for the fifth of the seven-phase election to seven Lok Sabha seats of Barrackpur, Bangaon, Howrah, Uluberia, Sreerampur, Hooghly and Arambag spanning three districts of South Bengal on May 6 came to an end this evening.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Trinamool Congress (AITC), Indian National Congress (INC) and the Left Front have fielded their candidates in all the seven constituencies.
There was high pitch campaigning for the seven seats by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, BJP national president Amit Shah and top leaders of the Congress and Left parties.
The high-pitched campaign was mainly polarised between Ms Banerjee and Mr Modi. Issues ranging from corruption to communalism, NRC to chit fund scams and development to security featured in the speeches of the warring party leaders.
The Trinamool Congress chief called upon the people to defeat the Modi government while the latter urged voters to exercise their franchise in his party’s favour.Prominent among those contesting the fifth phase Lok Sabha election are former railway minister and sitting TMC MP Dinesh Trivedi from Barrackpur, sitting MP Sajda Ahmed, wife of late former union Sultan Ahmed, and veteran Bengali actor-cum-BJP candidate Joy Banerjee from Uluberia, actor-cum-BJP leader Locket Chatterjee and sitting TMC MP Dr Ratna De Nag from Hooghly, Lawyer-cum-sitting TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee from Sreerampore, former Indian football captain-cum-sitting TMC MP Prasun Banerjee from Howrah and TMC’s sitting MP Aparupa Poddar from Arambagh.
Nearly 660 companies of para-military forces will man the fifth phase polling booths, nearly double the force from 4th phase.In Barrackpur, there are fifteen contestants, including those from the mainstream parties such as TMC, BJP, CPI(M) and Congress, but the main fight will be between TMC and BJP.
Eyeing the third consecutive term, former Railway Minister and sitting MP Dinesh Trivedi, is not only confident of a win but with an increased margin from Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency in North 24 praganas district of West Bengal.
Once the bastion of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mr Trivedi, supported by the Congress in 2009 Lok Sabha elections,emerged a giant killer unseating six-time CPI (M) MP Tarit Topdar by over 56,000 votes. Topdar had won the seat since 1989.He won again in the 2014 Lok Sabha election against Subhashini Ali of the CPI (M).
Trivedi, who won Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat twice, is locked in an electoral battle here with his once man-Friday Arjun Singh, an MLA from one of the Assembly segments in this seat who was poached by the BJP last month and fielded from here.
Singh, who won the Bhatpara Assembly seat in Barrackpore, was one of the founding members of the Trinamool Congress. He won the seat four times and is known as a ‘Bahubal’ in the area.
Locals say he used to look after the constituency work for Trivedi for many years but differences cropped up between the two later. He switched to BJP only after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee announced the TMC list of candidates and his hopes of getting a ticket from Barrackpore were dashed.
Trivedi is pitted against, BJP candidate Arjun Singh, CPI(M) candidate Gargi Chatterjee and Congress candidate MD Alam.As per the Election Commission data in 2019, total number of electorate in Barrackpur Lok Sabha seat is 14, 33, 276 of whom 7, 39, 354 are male, 6, 93, 893 female and 29 third genders voters. A total number of 1567 polling stations would be set up for voting.
In Bangaon there are ten contestants, including those from the mainstream parties such as TMC, BJP, CPI (M) and Congress, but the main fight will be between TMC and BJP.
Bangaon Lok Sabha seat North 24 Parganas district has been under the Trinamool Congress since 2009.TMC candidate Gobinda Chandra Naskar defeated Asim Bala of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the 2009 Lok Sabha election by a margin of 92,826 votes.
In the next general election of 2014, Kapil Krishna Thakur won against CPI(M) leader Debesh Das by more than 146,600 votes.Kapil Krishna Thakur died on October 13, 2014, leading to a bypoll in the Bangaon Lok Sabha seat.His wife Mamata Thakur contested the election and defeated Debesh Das again.
This time ruling TMC has fielded Mamata Thakur from this constituency once again who is pitted against BJP candidate Shantanu Thakur, CPI(M) candidate Alakesh Das and Congress candidate Sourav Prasad.
As per the Election Commission data in 2019, total number of electorate in Bangaon Lok Sabha seat is 16, 99, 763 of whom 8, 71, 463 are male, 8, 28, 277 female and 23 third genders voters. A total number of 1899 polling stations would be set up for voting.