All eyes are on the election leads to West Bengal on May 2 with the high-profile seat in East Midnapore’s Nandigram taking the political centre stage. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting right here towards her former lieutenant, Suvendu Adhikari, who has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) camp. Political specialists consider that the result on this constituency can have a bearing on each leaders.
Polling in Nandigram was held on April 1, within the second of eight phases of elections within the state. Eighty-eight per cent folks solid their votes on this seat — which is about one proportion level greater than that in 2016, when Adhikari gained the seat as a candidate of the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).
LOOKING BACK
The TMC grabbed the Nandigram seat from the Left in a 2009 bypoll, after which retained it in 2011 and 2016. The agitations towards land acquisition in Nandigram and Hooghly’s Singur in 2007-2008 catapulted Banerjee to the pedestal of energy in Bengal in 2011.
In the 2009 by-election, the TMC’s Firoja Bibi gained Nandigram by securing 93,022 votes (58.28% vote share). Back then, the BJP’s Bijan Kumar Das bought solely 9,813 votes (1.72% Nandigram). The by-election was held on January 5, 2009. It was necessitated by the resignation of Communist Party of India legislator Muhammad Ilyas after a sting operation that alleged corruption.
In the 2011 meeting polls, when Banerjee got here to energy by ending 34 years of Left rule in Bengal, TMC’s Bibi secured a vote share of 61.21%, whereas the BJP’s Das bought only one.72% of the votes.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, TMC candidate Adhikari defeated the BJP’s Badshah’s Alam by 63,0663 votes in Tamluk (Nandigram falls underneath this Lok Sabha seat). While Adhikari’s vote share was 53.60%, Alam’s was simply 6.40%.
Two years later, within the 2016 meeting elections, Adhikari emerged as a winner with a vote share of 67.20%. The BJP’s Das didn’t make a lot of an impression and bought simply 10,713 votes (5.40% vote share).
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when the BJP gained 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats, the TMC fielded Adhikari’s brother, Dibyendu Adhikari, towards the BJP’s Siddhartha Naskar from Tamluk. Dibyendu gained with a margin of 190,165 votes. The TMC bought 50.08% of the votes, whereas the BJP bought 36.44%.
THE DYNAMICS
Past performances and Banerjee’s entry into the fray have made the TMC assured. On the opposite hand, the BJP’s guess its Adhikari and his household’s important affect in East Midnapore district and different districts. According to analysts, the BJP will hope to get a big chunk of the Hindu votes in Nandigram, whereas the TMC will have a look at the 30% of Muslim votes.
According to the 2011 census, Muslims account for 34.04% of the inhabitants in Nandigram’s Block 1. In Block 2, the corresponding quantity is about 12.12%.
“Most of the political parties are fighting the 2021 Assembly polls on religious and caste lines. In Nandigram too, the BJP is banking on Hindu vote share, while TMC is looking at Muslim votes. This is for the first time when political parties are openly talking about polarisation politics in Bengal. The BJP knows it well that it will not get a significant number of Muslim votes in Nandigram. And therefore, it is trying to polarise the Hindu vote share,” political skilled Kapil Thakur mentioned.
TMC parliamentarian Saugata Roy mentioned his celebration believed that individuals in Nandigram will vote for Banerjee, and never for “anyone who talks about divisive politics”. On Adhikari’s efficiency within the organisation over the previous two years, he mentioned: “It was not up to the mark. He failed in the areas where he was in charge. There was an unnecessary hype over Suvendu.”
Adhikari was the TMC’s incharge for Purulia, Jhargram, Murshidabad, Malda, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Bankura and Bishnupur districts. In 2019, the TMC misplaced 9 of the 13 Lok Sabha seats on this area.
Tamluk BJP president Nabarun Nayak dismissed claims that the TMC will emerge as a cushty winner in East Midnapore, which has 16 meeting seats. In 2016, TMC gained 13 seats on this district, whereas the remaining three went to the Left.
“As of now, going with the mood of people in East Midnapore, we are sweeping this district. We are going to win all the 16 assembly seats in East Midnapore and the TMC’s days are numbered. Just wait for the result day on May 2,” Nayak mentioned.
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