Bengal polls: Three-cornered battle heats up in Kolkata’s Jadavpur seat
UNI SPECIAL
By Sirshendu Panth
Kolkata, April 28 (UNI) A leading lawyer, a veteran actress and a leading Chartered Accountant are locking horns in Jadavpur – a prestigious constituency in Kolkata's southern fringes dotted with premier educational and health institutes with a legacy of courting, and occasionally, snubbing political stalwarts.
A one-time red citadel, Jadavpur has a history of having sided with Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) contestants, including heavyweights like late chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and venerated economist Ashok Mitra, for close to half a century during its 59 years of existence.
However, the script has now turned somewhat upside down, in sync with the decline of the Left across West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress has won the seat twice in the last three elections.
The constituency, comprising ten wards (96. 99, 101-106, 109 and 110) of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, covers areas like Sulekha More, a stretch of S C Mullick Road, Santoshpur, Haltu, Briji, Kalikapur, Mukundapur and some localities close to Garia government bus stand. The country's top rated Jadavpur University, big brand private superspeciality hospitals which draw patients even from neighbouring countries, and a private medical college are located in Jadavpur.
Economically, it is a mixed bag, with economically distressed people and middle classes inhabiting the so-called "colonies" formed by people who came to India during and after partition. With development, many high rises and society complexes have sprung up, housing people from higher income, middle income and lower income groups.
Demographically, the constituency has only a few hundred Muslim votes, while 20 per cent of the 2,60,821-strong electorate are from the Matua community, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
However, about 60,000 voters' names were deleted during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Sitting Trinamool MLA Debabrata Majumdar, a Chartered Accountant, prides himself as a "son of the soil" having been born and brought up in Jadavpur. "I have been a councillor since 2000. People know they can approach me whenever they need any help. Our government has carried out a lot of development work in Jadavpur".
Disagrees advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, a former Kolkata Mayor, who has been fielded by the CPI-M.
"People are suffering from a lack of drinking water supply, and the road conditions are not that good. There are rampant illegal constructions and unauthorised filling up of water bodies," said Bhattacharya, who has emerged over the past 15 years of TMC rule as the central figure in the large number of legal battles waged against the state government by the opposition parties, workers and other aggrieved citizens.
The only time a BJP candidate has managed to save his/her security deposit in the constituency was in 2021 when Rinku Naskar finished third, bagging close to 25 percent of the votes. However, the saffron outfit is drawing hope from its second-place finish in the segment in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. On both occasions, the TMC emerged victorious and CPI-M contestants were pushed to the third slot. Incidentally, Bhattacharya had been the CPI-M candidate in 2019.
The BJP aspirant this time is Sarbori Mukherjee, a known face in Bengali television serials for two decades. The 56-year-old actress believes the people will vote to form a government which can ensure jobs.
"Jadavpur is the land of refugees who migrated here to save their lives and the honour of their women. For long, they were made to forget this piece of history. We are reminding them of this torrid past and how our party champions their cause," said Mukherjee.
Not only the BJP, the TMC and the CPI-M are also going all out to woo the erstwhile refugees who form around 42 per cent of the constituency's total 2,60,821 voters.
The TMC has been telling people about the work done by the Mamata Banerjee-led government to regularise "refugee colonies" and grant land titles to the residents.
"Most of the people living in these colony areas are old leftists. We are telling them to come back to their own people, their old comrades," said Subrata Dasgupta, the chairman of the CPI-M's Jadavur Election Committee.
The constituency came into being in 1967, the year the United Front helmed by the Leftists and the Bangla Congress defeated the Congress for the first time in the state.
CPI-M leaders like B K Guha and Dinesh Majumdar won multiple time from this seat, while Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee won five back-to-back elections (1987, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006), before losing to his Trinamool Congress rival Manish Gupta in 2011, the year the Left Front government's 34-year rule came to an end in the state. It was the first time the Marxists conceded the seat.
However, the CPI-M regained the seat in 2016 through Sujan Chakraborty, who lost out to the current legislator Majumdar in 2021. Majumdar had then won by close to 39,000 votes, received 45.5 percent of the popular mandate, as against 27.5 per cent that went to Chakraborty.
But what will happen this time round ?
"Every election is challenging. But voters have faith in Mamata Banerjee. They have seen our work. My margin will increase," said Majumdar.
Bhattacharya conceded that in recent elections many Left voters had opted for the BJP. "But this time I'm optimistic because while campaigning I got some positive response from the common people. Many of them said they had cast their votes for the BJP in the last election, but this time they were thinking of not supprtng BJP".
However, Mukherjee lost no time in calling the CPI-M a vote-cutter. "Only the BJP can defeat the TMC. There is no point wasting your vote by voting for the CPI-M," she said.
There are ten other candidates, but observers feel the main battle will be between the TMC, CPI-M and BJP.
With Jadavour going to the hustings on Wednesday, which way the wind will blow will finally be known when the votes are counted on May 4. UNI SSP
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