Kolkata: The Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency is poised to witness a riveting duel, as Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate Saayoni Ghosh faces off against Communist Party of India (Marxist) contender Srijan Bhattacharya. The constituency will go for vote in the last phase of election, which is going to be held on June 1.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded scholar-turned-politician Anirban Ganguly and Indian Secular Front (ISF) has fielded Nur Alam Khan. With the total number of female voters being 1019470 against 1000286 male voters, women will be a deciding factor in the Jadavpur Parliamentary constituency (PC) during the Lok Sabha polls.
Considering the composition of the Jadavpur constituency’s local bodies which has been a stronghold for TMC, the political experts believe that out of seven Assembly constituencies, six is a confirmed victory for TMC while Bhangar will be an interesting toss considering ISF’s hold there. It is believed that the minority vote there may get divided between ISF, TMC and to some extent CPI(M). However, BJP lags behind in the race. In the total vote secured by Mimi Chakraborty, over a third came from Bhangar. According to a news report, two years later, the TMC won six of the seven Assembly segments but lost Bhangore where it polled the most number of votes in 2019. There are seven Assembly constituencies under Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency, which includes Baruipur Purba, Baruipur Paschim, Sonarpur Dakshin, Bhangar, Jadavpur, Sonarpur Uttar and Tollygunge. Once a left bastion, TMC’s Kabir Suman in 2009 general elections defeated Sujan Chakraborty with 49.84 per cent vote share in Jadavpur constituency. Since then, the seat was dominated by TMC leaders like Sugata Bose in 2014 and Mimi Chakbarborty in 2019. Chakraborty had won by 6,88,472 votes with 47.91 per cent vote shared while BJP’s Anupam Hazra got 3,93,233 votes with a vote share of 27.36 per cent giving it a headway from CPI(M)’s Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya who secure 3,02,264 with 21.04 per cent vote share. CPI(M) candidate Srijan Bhattacharya, during his election campaign, stressed that the results will alter this election as people will vote not on communal lines but on issues burning the pockets of wage-earners like price rise and employment.
Political analysts however believe that an additional factor which may contribute to the increase in left vote share this time may be the absence of BJP candidate Anirban Ganguly from the popularity contest. Meanwhile, people in the constituency are divided into two sections — loyalists and undecided voters. While issues like alleged recruitment corruption and Sandeshkhali or resignation of Mimi Chakbraborty before her MP term completed remained a topic of discussion, majority voters in the constituency are swayed by various women empowerment schemes provided by the state government. Various state government schemes like Lakshmir Bhandar, Sabooj Sathi, Kanyashree, Rupashree schemes found an exclusive place in the campaign of Saayoni Ghosh. This constituency will go for vote on June 1 while the date of counting will be on June 4.
Five of the seven (ACs) Assembly constituencies (barring Baruipur East and Bhangor) under Jadavpur PC — the female voters outnumber their male counterparts. In Baruipur West, the number of female and male voters is 137609 and 134462, respectively.
In Sonarpur South, the figure is 151402 and 145971, for Jadavpur the number is 158156 and 147155, for Sonarpur North 158676 and 155483 and in Tollygunge it is 134866 and 126710, respectively. “We received an overwhelming response. Votes will definitely increase. Now, there will be a fight on who will grab the second position,” Ward 97 councillor Debabrata Majumder said, while throwing shade at the Opposition party candidates.