Shibpur showdown: BJP’s ‘bhumi putra’ pitch faces Trinamool’s grassroots grip

Kolkata: While actor-turned-politician Rudranil Ghosh, the BJP candidate from Shibpur in Howrah, is mounting an intense, high-stakes bid to enter the Assembly for the first time—projecting himself as a “Bhumi Putra” (son of the soil)—Trinamool Congress (TMC) nominee Rana Chatterjee is countering with the party’s “development first” pitch, anchored in the Mamata Banerjee government’s social welfare schemes.

However, in the contest for the Shibpur seat, the TMC seems to retain a decisive edge over the BJP in grassroots connect.

During his election campaign, Ghosh has been highlighting local issues such as waterlogging and poor drainage to target the ruling party, besides also raising the “corruption, scandals, and cut money culture” issue.

TMC, this time, dropped the current MLA from Shibpur, Manoj Tiwary, following resentment among the local party leaders and activists.

Chatterjee, who is presently an MLA from the Bally Assembly Constituency, has been given the mantle.

In the 2021 Assembly polls, TMC’s Manoj Tiwary defeated BJP’s Rathin Chakrabarty by a margin of 32,603 votes. Tiwary polled 92,372 votes while Chakrabarty got 59,769 votes.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, TMC candidate Prasun Banerjee won from the Howrah Lok Sabha with a margin of 1,69,442 votes by defeating Rathin Chakraborty of the BJP. From the Shibpur Assembly segment, Banerjee had a lead of over 14,000 votes during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

During the 2016 Assembly polls, TMC’s Jatu Lahiri won the Shibpur seat with a margin of 27,014 votes. He polled 88,076 votes. Forward Bloc candidate Jagannath Bhattacharyya got 61,062 votes and was the runner-up.

According to the ECI data, there were 2,33,676 voters in the Shibpur Constituency during the 2021 Assembly polls. Out of this, 1,17,327 were male, and 1,16,342 were female voters. After the 2025 SIR, Shibpur showed 205,380 voters on the draft roll, a sharp decline of 32,651 from 238,061 in 2024. Shibpur recorded a 12 per cent Muslim population in 2021, along with 6.04 per cent SC and 0.64 per cent ST populations.

The rhetoric around electoral roll revisions has undergone a sharp shift following the implementation of the SIR exercise. The seat has remained with the ruling party for the past 15 years, and despite its strong organisational grip in the region, the BJP has been attempting to tap into the undercurrents of anti-incumbency. How far Rudranil Ghosh can “tear into” the ruling party’s vote bank will ultimately be decided on May 4, when the results are declared.