Phase-4 WB Polls: BJP, TMC poised for tough fight

Today's fourth-phase voting for the West Bengal Assembly elections is expected to be balanced on a knife edge between Trinamool Congress and India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, considering the voting ratio of the last Lok Sabha polls.

In the fourth phase, elections will be held in 44 constituencies covering Cooch Behar and Alipurduar districts in north Bengal and parts of South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hoogly in the southern part of the state.

In the last assembly election in 2016, TMC won 39 seats, Communist Party of India (Marxist) bagged three while National Congress and BJP shared the remaining two seats.

In that election, TMC won 46 percent votes, CPIM got 28.79 percent, Congress 6.71 percent and BJP 12.13 percent.

The scenario changed within three years and in the last Lok Sabha election (national polls) in 2019, the TMC's vote decreased to 44.73 percent while the BJP's vote raised to 40.88 percent.

The success made BJP believe they can overthrow Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the assembly polls this time around.

Mamata is looking to win a third straight term in office.

Before the fourth phase, in which a number of senior politicians and celebrity-turned politicians are contesting, West Bengal witnessed high-octane campaigning and an ultimate showdown between the TMC and BJP.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP President JP Nadda and movie stars Mithun Chakraborty campaigned for "Lotus", the electoral symbol of BJP.

Mamata, sitting on a wheelchair, single-handedly led the TMC campaign that got a boost when Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan joined it.

During the campaign, Mamata repeatedly branded BJP central leaders as "outsiders" and claimed "Bengal wants its own daughter". She went tough on the BJP-led central government over recent price hikes of gas, petrol and diesel.

Referring to the two top BJP leaders Modi and Amit Shah, TMC leaders also said Bengal would not let "goons from Gujarat" take over Bengal.

BJP top leaders on the other hand accused Mamata and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee of corruption and nepotism.

They promised voters that the BJP would implement Ayushman Bharat scheme, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi and the 7th pay commission scale for the state government employees if voted to power in West Bengal.

In this phase, polling will be held in nine assembly constituencies in Howrah, 11 in South 24 Parganas, five in Alipurduar, nine in Cooch Behar and 10 in Hooghly.

About 373 candidates are in the fray and around 1.15 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise across 15,940 polling stations.

CONTESTANTS

In the fourth phase, a good number of veteran politicians and celebrities are contesting the WB polls.

Among the candidates are TMC Secretary General and Education Minister Partha Chatterjee (Behala Purba), Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Aroop Biswas (Tollygunj), North Bengal Development Minister Rabindranath Ghosh (Natabari in Cooch Behar) and Agriculture Minister Arup Roy (Howrah Madhya).

Three BJP MPs are taking part in the Assembly polls in this phase. They are: Babul Supriyo (MP from Asansol, contesting from Tollygunj), Locket Chatterjee, (MP from Hooghly, contesting from Chunchura), and Nisith Pramanik (Cooch Behar MP, contesting from Dinhata).

Another key BJP candidate Rajib Banerjee, minister of Mamata's previous cabinet, is contesting the polls from Domjur in Howrah.

In Behala Purba, TMC fielded Ratna Chatterjee, estranged wife of sitting MLA and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee. She will contest against BJP candidate actor Payel Sarkar.

In Hooghly's Singur, former Trinamool MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya, popularly known as "Master Moshai", is contesting the polls on BJP ticket.

For Samyukt Morcha, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Abdul Mannan is contesting the polls from Champdani in Hooghly. Leader of Left Legislature Party Sujan Chakraborty is running in the election from Jadavpur and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Mohammed Salim from Chanditala in Hooghly. Selim will compete against popular actor Yash Dasgupta from BJP.

Naushad Siddique, brother of Indian Secular Front founder and Furfura peer Abbas Siddique, is contesting the polls from Bhangar in South 24 Parganas.

Popular comedian of Bengali films Kanchan Mullick is taking part in the election from Uttarpara in Hooghly and cricketer Manoj Tiwary from Shibpur in Howrah on TMC's ticket.

The fifth phase of the eight-phase Assembly elections is scheduled for April 10 when voters will elect their representatives for 45 assembly seats in six districts.