Electoral fates of about 124 candidates to be sealed today

Kolkata: The electoral destinies of 124 candidates will be decided on Saturday (June 1) in the seventh and final phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls for nine Constituencies in Bengal.

Among these contenders, 23 are women who are vying for seats in Kolkata North, Kolkata South, Jadavpur, Diamond Harbour, Mathurapur, Jaynagar, Dum Dum, Barasat, and Basirhat.

Of the 124 contestants, Kolkata South has the highest number of 17 candidates, followed by Jadavpur 16 and 15 each in Basirhat and Kolkata North Parliamentary seats.

The prominent candidates whose fate will be sealed include Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee from Diamond Harbour, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar in Barasat, Sougata Roy in Dum Dum, Sudip Bandopadhyay in Kolkata North, Mala Roy in Kolkata South, Saayoni Ghosh in Jadavpur all belonging to the TMC. Nominating Rakha Patra, a Sandeshkhali woman as a BJP candidate for Basirhat was an interesting twist.

Patra got the ticket after she spearheaded the Sandeshkhali unrest that eventually triggered controversy after sting operation videos surfaced. The BJP capitalised on this issue by nominating Patra against TMC veteran Haji Nurul Islam.

CPI(M) Central Committee member Sujan Chakraborty is contesting from Dum Dum. In Kolkata South, TMC veteran Mala Roy is up against BJP’s former Union minister Debasree Chaudhuri, while the TMC has fielded Saayoni Ghosh, an actor and president of the party’s youth wing, in Jadavpur.

Dum Dum has 14 candidates, Mathurapur and Diamond Harbour have 12 candidates each. Jaynagar has the least number of candidates at 11. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool Congress candidates were elected from all these nine constituencies.

The South Bengal region has traditionally been a TMC fortress, with the party winning 30 out of 31 seats in South 24-Parganas, 29 out of 33 in North 24-Parganas and all 16 seats in Kolkata in the 2021 Assembly.