West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021: Phase 1
With the first phase of polling to be held on Saturday, March 27, the battle for West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021 begins.
The main contenders for power are West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has emerged as the state’s principal opposition party.
The third option, called the United Front, comprises the Left Front, Congress and the newly formed Indian Secular Front, led by a Furfura Sharif Peerzada, Abbas Siddiqui.
In the opening round, 30 assembly seats — adjoining, or near the borders with Odisha and Jharkhand — will go to polls. Among these, four seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) and seven for Scheduled Tribe.
The dense forest in this area has earned it the sobriquet of “junglemahal” or the forested estate. Even less than a decade ago, this region was dominated by Maoist extremist groups.
According to the latest ABP News CNX Opinion Poll, the BJP is expected do well in this area. The seats going to polls in first phase is part of South-West Bengal which has 119 assembly constituencies.
Parts of the districts of Murshidabad, Birbhum, Bankura, East and West Bardhaman, East and West Medinipur is also referred to as Rarh Bengal.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had done extremely well in this region.
In the 2016 Vidhan Sabha polls, however, the TMC swept 27 seats, Congress got two and the Revolutionary Socialist Party or RSP (part of Left Front) had managed one seat.
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BJP managed the number two position in only one seat — losing by over 43,000 votes to TMC in Nayagram (ST).
In the first phase, the fate of 191 candidates will be decided from parts of the districts of East Medinipur, West Medinipur, Bankura, Purulia and Jhargram.
According to reports quoting affidavits submitted to the Election Commission by these candidates, 10% are “crorepatis”. While 170 are men, there are 21 women in fray. While 53 candidates are between the age of 25 and 40 years, 109 between 41and 60, while 29 contestants are in the 61 to 80 years old bracket.
There are 48 (or 25%) candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves. And the number of “Red Alert” constituencies, i.e. seats having three or more candidates with declared criminal cases among the 30 assembly constituencies, are seven.