KOLKATA: West Bengal is all prepped up for a pulsating contest between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the BJP on Thursday when 152 of the total 294 constituencies in the state go to polls in the first of the two-phase elections amid unprecedented security cover.
This is the first election after the Election Commission of India’s controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of rolls resulted in 91 lakh deletions from the list.
How it would impact the outcome is anybody’s guess. Appellate tribunals added just 139 of the 27 lakh — whose names did not figure in the supplementary rolls — to the list of eligible voters in the first phase.
Of the 152 seats in the first phase, 54 in north Bengal districts of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda are seen as strongholds of the BJP.
The remaining 98 seats in districts like Murshidabad, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Purulia, Bankura, West Bardhaman and Birbhum, are part of the the traditional citadel of the TMC.
The respective strengths of the CPM-led Left Front and the Congress will also be under test. Apart from SIR and anti-incumbency, the TMC faces serious charges like widespread corruption, poor law and order, infiltration and tribal discontent.
This is the first election after the Election Commission of India’s controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of rolls resulted in 91 lakh deletions from the list.
How it would impact the outcome is anybody’s guess. Appellate tribunals added just 139 of the 27 lakh — whose names did not figure in the supplementary rolls — to the list of eligible voters in the first phase.
Of the 152 seats in the first phase, 54 in north Bengal districts of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda are seen as strongholds of the BJP.
The remaining 98 seats in districts like Murshidabad, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Purulia, Bankura, West Bardhaman and Birbhum, are part of the the traditional citadel of the TMC.
The respective strengths of the CPM-led Left Front and the Congress will also be under test. Apart from SIR and anti-incumbency, the TMC faces serious charges like widespread corruption, poor law and order, infiltration and tribal discontent.