West Bengal’s power struggle has reached its penultimate level, with polling for the seventh phase of assembly elections beginning at 7 a.m. today.
Ruling Trinamool Congress and BJP are contesting on all 34 seats. Among these, six are in Dakshin Dinajpur, six in Malda, nine in Murshidabad, nine in Paschim Bardhaman, and four in Kolkata.
The struggle for the coveted Bhabanipur seat, which was vacated by incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee when she chose to run from Nandigram this time, would be one of the most closely watched contests. The TMC has fielded veteran politician and state power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay in the constituency, hoping to win it for the third time. Famous Bengali actor Rudranil Ghosh, who is running on a BJP ticket, will face him in the election.
The constituency is home turf for Chattopadhyay, who has run for assembly seven times and won each time. He is a native of the district and exercises his franchise there. Ghosh, who has won awards for his roles in films such as ‘Vinci Da’ and ‘Chaplin,’ claims that a significant portion of the population in Bhabanipur is non-Bengalis who may not have seen his films but are aware of his social work in the city.
“Over the last couple of years, people in Bhabanipur have lost faith in Mamata Banerjee. Ghosh, who was once an aide to the TMC supremo but fell out with her two years ago, said, “She fled to Nandigram fearing imminent defeat here.”
On Monday, 12,068 polling stations will be open for voting. For this process, the poll panel has agreed to deploy at least 796 central forces companies. At a time when the pandemic is raging in Bengal and other parts of the region, the seventh phase of elections will be held. The state recorded 14,281 new Covid cases and 59 new deaths on Saturday.
