Bengal: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Dilip Ghosh, Mahua Moitra in fray in 4th phase polling

Kolkata, May 12 (IANS) The fate of 75 candidates will be sealed on Monday in the fourth phase of elections in eight Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal.

The prominent candidates whose fate will be sealed include the state Congress president in West Bengal and five-time party Lok Sabha member from Baharampur Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and former national vice president and former state president of BJP in West Bengal Dilip Ghosh, who is the party candidate from Bardhaman-Durgapur this time.

In 2009, Ghosh was elected from the Medinipur Lok Sabha constituency in the West Midnapore district.

The eight constituencies in West Bengal that will be going to the polls on Monday include Baharampur in Murshidabad district, Birbhum and Bolpur in Birbhum district, Krishnanagar and Ranaghat in Nadia district, Bardhaman-Purba in East Burdwan district and Bardhaman-Durgapur and Asansol in West Burdwan district.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Congress won just one seat at Baharampur, while BJP candidates bagged three constituencies namely Ranaghat, Bardhaman-Durgapur and Asansol. Trinamool Congress was elected from the remaining four seats -- Birbhum, Bolpur, Krishnanagar and Bardhaman-Purba.

This is for the first time since the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, that the Trinamool Congress will be contesting the polls at Birbhum and Bolpur in the absence of party strongman and former district president Anubrata Mondal, who is currently serving his judicial custody at Tihar jail in New Delhi in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling case in West Bengal.

Also in focus in the fourth phase is the Krishnanagar constituency in Nadia district, where Trinamool Congress has re-nominated its earlier MP Mahua Moitra, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha in connection with the ‘cash for query’ scam. Against Moitra, the BJP has fielded Amrita Roy, a member of the Royal family of Krishnanagar.

Under watch will also be two Matua-dominated Lok Sabha constituencies of Ranaghat district, where the people from the community are already quite excited over the recent CAA notification announced by the Union government. BJP’s sitting MP Jagannath Sarkar, who is again contesting from Ranaghat, is confident of retaining the seat with a bigger margin.

Over 23 per cent of total booths in eight Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal going for polls in the fourth phase on May 13 are highly sensitive, as per the figures available with the office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal. The eight Lok Sabha constituencies will have a total of 15,507 booths, out of which 3,647 (23.51 per cent) are highly sensitive in nature.

A total of 596 companies of central armed police forces are already in West Bengal, out of which 578 companies will be deployed on poll duty, while the remaining will be kept on reserve. Again out of the 578 companies, 430 companies will be deployed at the polling stations, while the remaining 148 companies will be kept for the formation of quick response teams.

The CAPF companies will be assisted by 33,471 personnel from state police forces.