West Bengal. West Bengal: In this general election for the Kolkata South seat, the BJP has reduced the gap with the Trinamool Congress by more than 50,000 votes in Bhawanipur constituency represented by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the assembly. Trinamool’s lead in this assembly constituency was just 8,297 votes. Advertisement Booth-wise data from the Election Commission of India shows that the BJP took the lead in 149 of the 269 booths in the assembly constituency and five of the eight Kolkata Municipal Corporation wards under the assembly constituency. In the September 2021 by-elections, Mamata won the Bhawanipur assembly seat by a record margin of 58,832 votes, securing nearly 72 percent vote share. Mamata had taken the lead in all eight wards. The five wards where the BJP is leading are 63 (Chowringhee, Taltala, Park Street, Shakespeare Sarani, Maidan and parts of Hastings), 70 (Jadu Babu Ka Bazar), 71 (Bhawanipore), 72 (Chakraberia, Padmapukur and Bakulbagan) and 74 (Alipore). These are five of the 45 of the city’s 144 wards – spread across several Lok Sabha seats – in which the BJP has gained a lead this time, up from the three it won in the 2021 civic polls.
The three Trinamool-led wards in the miscellaneous, metropolitan constituency are 73 (Bhawanipore, Patuapara and parts of Kalighat), 77 (parts of Kidderpore) and 82 (Chetla). Incidentally, 73 is represented in the corporation by Mamata’s sister-in-law Kajri Banerjee, while 82 is the ward of mayor and urban development minister Firhad Hakim.
“Anything related to Bhabanipur and Kolkata South is a matter of prestige for us. Both are home to Didi (Mamata) and (her successor) Abhishek (Banerjee). She has been the MLA from Bhabanipur since 2011 and has been the MP from Kolkata South six times since 1991,” said a Trinamool worker from Kolkata South. Admitting that they were surprised by the Bhabanipur results, a Trinamool worker from Kolkata South said, “We will definitely change this situation by the next assembly election. But it was disappointing.” Bhabanipur and Rashbehari – represented in the assembly by Trinamool’s south Calcutta organisational district unit chief Debashish Kumar – are the two assembly constituencies in Kolkata South (the other five are Ballygunge, Behala East, Behala West, Kolkata Port and Kasba) in which Mamata’s party finds itself trailing the BJP this time, after winning all seven seats in 2021. Overall, the Trinamool lead in assembly constituencies dropped from 215 in 2021 to 192 in this general election and the BJP lead increased from 77 to 90. This is a sharp reversal of the last Lok Sabha results, in which the Trinamool had won 29 seats, including all five seats in and around Calcutta, while the BJP got 12 seats.
“This is a statewide trend. Voters in all urban, semi-urban, semi-urban centres have expressed faith in Narendra Modi and his party… People who are better placed and more aware tend to side with the BJP,” said Sajal Ghosh, BJP’s ward 50 councillor. This time, Trinamool’s sitting MP Mala Roy got 62,461 votes from Bhawanipur, 20,802 less than the September 2021 by-election. BJP candidate Debasree Chaudhuri won 54,164 votes, almost doubling her September 2021 figure. Nearly one in every two voters in Bhawanipur is a non-Bengali. The constituency has a large number of Punjabis, Gujaratis, Biharis, Marathis, Odias, Marwaris and people from Uttar Pradesh, besides some from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. The socio-economically diverse constituency has nearly 80 per cent non-Muslim votes, including a large number of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains. “A large section of non-Bengali, non-Muslim voters supported the BJP in the Lok Sabha election. This may not happen in the assembly or municipal elections,” a political observer said. Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh said general election factors would not be relevant in municipal or assembly elections and the party would regain its dominance there.
