Mamata, Sovan and Partha heavyweights in 5th phase

The fate of nine ministers including the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be decided in the fifth phase of election scheduled to be held on April 30.

The campaign for the elections came to an end at 6 pm on Thursday. The ministers participating in the fifth phase will be Subrata Mukherjee (Ballygunge), Aroop Biswas (Tollygunge), Firhad Hakim (Kolkata Port), Javed Khan (Kasba), Manish Gupta (Jadavpur), Partha Chatterjee (Behala West) and Manturam Pakhira (Kakdwip) and Giyasuddin Mollah (Magrahat West).

Other important politicians taking part in the fifth phase of the poll are Sovan Chatterjee (mayor), Biman Banerjee (speaker), Sonali Guha (deputy speaker). Also Sujan Chakraborty and Madhuja Sen Roy of CPI(M) are taking part in the fifth phase.

Of the 53 constituencies where election will be held on April 30, Bhowanipore Assembly is the most important where Mamata Banerjee is pitted against Deepa Das Munshi and Chandra Bose. The Opposition is trying to confuse people saying that Banerjee has a slim chance of winning the seat which is far from the actual reality. Banerjee’s enormous popularity will increase her margin and it is quite likely that Das Munshi’s position would be third.

The next important constituency is Jadavpur where Manish Gupta is con testing against Sujan Chakraborty of CPI(M). Gupta had defeated Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in 2011 election. He is likely to retain the seat. Again, the Opposition and some newspapers and television channels are trying hard to create confusion among the electorate, particularly among the floating voters.

The rumour mongering has reached such an extent that some parts of the media have predicted that Subrata Mukherjee is likely to face a reversal in Ballygunge. Against Mukherjee, the candidate for alliance is Krishna Debnath. Congress does not have any organisation and is totally banking on CPI(M) for survival. The Congress voters will either vote for Mukherjee or abstain from voting which in case is going to benefit him.

Before the fifth phase of election the Opposition in collusion with a section of the media is spreading rumours that the alliance would come to power. This has created confusion among some people. The media people with vested interest are saying that they got this information from IAS and IPS officers.

It may be recalled that Mamata Banerjee had said on Sunday that some people had told her that they had received SMS that TMC would get 30-40 seats. She assured them this was absolutely false. “This was deliberately done by some with vested interest,” she said adding:” As the alliance had done badly in most of the seats where election was held the Opposition was trying to confuse urban voters.”