Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live
Bengal polls: 45 seats in fray in 5th phase today
Voting on 21 reserved for Schedule Castes, across six districts as Covid-19 cases rise
KOLKATA: Forty-five seats, including 21 reserved for Schedule Castes (SC), across six districts will go to the polls in the fifth of the eight-phase elections in West Bengal on Saturday amid a surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths. Of the 13 seats, where polling is being held in north Bengal’s Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri districts, eight are reserved for SCs and the Rajbanshi community has a sizeable presence in this region.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which hopes to wrest power in the state for the first time, emerged as a major force after winning seven of the eight Lok Sabha seats in the region in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Over the last two years, the BJP and ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) have tried to secure the support of the Rajbanshis. BJP leaders, especially the party’s chief JP Nadda, have repeatedly visited north Bengal.
The TMC could not win even one of the six assembly constituencies in the hill districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in the 2016 assembly polls. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) retained the three assembly seats of Darjeeling, Kurseong, and Kalimpong.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) or, CPI(M), wrested Siliguri while the Congress retained the MatigaraNaxalbari and Phasidewa seats. The TMC is contesting 291 of the state’s 294 seats. It has left three hill seats to the two factions of the GJM.
In Siliguri, former city mayor Asok Bhattacharya, who served as minister for 20 years during the Left era, is fighting against BJP’s Shankar Ghosh, a key CPI(M) youth front leader till he switched sides before the polls.
In the south Bengal region, of the nine seats going to the polls in Nadia district, five are reserved for SC candidates: Krishnaganj, Ranaghat NorthEast, Ranaghat South, Kalyani, and Haringhata. The Dalit Mamasudra voters play a crucial role on these seats. The BJP won the Ranaghat LS seat in 2019 mainly because of their support.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday visited a local temple in Tehatta and reminded voters at a rally that the BJP was committed to granting citizenship to the Matuas, who are a part of the bigger Namasudra community.
The Matuas came to India from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) as refugees. “...The Prime Minister will set up a fund of ₹100 crore for the refugees. We will ensure their welfare.”
In East Burdwan district, which is considered the rice bowl of Bengal, five of the eight seats, including Khandaghosh, going to the polls on Saturday, are reserved for the SC community. The other reserved seats are Raina, Jamalpur, Kalna, and Burdwan North, which are considered strongholds of the TMC.
On Friday, while addressing a rally in East Burdwan’s Ketugram, which goes to the polls on
April 22, Nadda said, “This region is known for paddy and potato cultivation. But there are no warehouses and cold storage facilities. There is no irrigation facility either... Do you want a government like this?”
In the North 24 Parganas district, 16 seats are going to the polls. Of these, only two are reserved for the SC community while one is reserved for scheduled tribes
On Friday, Mamata Banerjee, who addressed a rally at Habra, blamed PM Narendra Modi for the rise in Covid-19 cases. “Narendra Modi is coming to Bengal for the campaign and thousands of people from other states are coming with him. Many of them are infected by the coronavirus...,” she said.
With 6,769 Covid-19 cases on Thursday, the state’s tally went up to 6,36,885. Till Thursday, 10,480 people have died of the disease in West Bengal.
Reacting to Banerjee’s allegation that rallies by Modi and Shah were drawing huge crowds and exposing people to high risk, BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta said, “We will follow whatever rules the EC [Election Commission] lays down for campaigning.”
The CPI (M) said it has stopped holding rallies and road shows.