West Bengal Elections: Mamata alert in Bhawanipur, strict warning issued on irregularities!

There is going to be a tough contest between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari in Bhawanipur Assembly constituency located in South Kolkata, West Bengal. Despite showing confidence externally, Trinamool Congress does not want to take any risk.

In the 2021 assembly elections, Mamata Banerjee lost to her former ally Adhikari in Nandigram by about 2,000 votes. Later, he contested elections again from Bhawanipur to become the Chief Minister for the third consecutive time.

Buoyed by his previous victory, Adhikari urged the BJP leadership to let him contest again against Mamata Banerjee, this time from her home constituency. The party agreed, although he was asked to file nomination from Nandigram also.

Mamata Banerjee won the Bhawanipur seat by nearly 59,000 votes in the 2021 by-election, and her party’s vote share increased by more than 14 per cent against Shovandeb Chatterjee’s 58 per cent.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool’s Mala Roy won the Kolkata South seat and was ahead in all the assembly constituencies including Bhawanipur, where she got a lead of about 6,500 votes. However, BJP was ahead in five wards of Bhawanipur. Trinamool’s state leadership has been tasked with reaching out to voters at the booth level ahead of the elections in April.

State President Subrata Bakshi, Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, South Kolkata District President Debashish Kumar and local councilors have been entrusted with the responsibility of public relations to highlight the welfare work done by Mamata Banerjee when she was the Chief Minister.

The second phase of elections in Bhawanipur is to be held on April 29. The Trinamool party has planned a month-long election campaign starting from Monday, March 23, while Mamata Banerjee will address rallies across the state. According to reports, he has instructed party workers to remain alert till the counting of votes on polling day, May 4, and warned against any alleged irregularities.

Trinamool leaders have indicated that Mamata’s defeat in Nandigram was due to the late power cut and alleged scuffle during counting of votes.

This time he has urged party members to be cautious about power cuts and stressed that efforts to overturn the mandate can be made later also.

Meanwhile, BJP candidates are counting on a special intensive revision of voter lists by the Election Commission, aimed at removing alleged fake voters. Additionally, it also wants to take advantage of anti-incumbency factors related to law and order and corruption.