West Bengal phase 5 voting: CAA, minority math, alliances among factors at play

Bangaon (SC), Barrackpur, Howrah, Uluberia, Sreerampur, Hooghly, and Arambag Lok Sabha constituencies will go into polls in the fifth phase.

In West Bengal, seven of the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies will go to polls in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha Election 2024 on May 20. These constituencies mainly lie in the industrial belt of the state. These are Bangaon (SC), Barrackpur, Howrah, Uluberia, Sreerampur, Hooghly, and Arambag.

In the first three phases, elections have already been conducted in 18 seats while they will be held in the rest of the 17 seats in the next two phases.

Bangaon

When votes are counted on June 4, the Bangaon mandate may perhaps be construed as a political implication of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The poll result may also influence the battle for a legacy after the passing of Boro Maa – the matriarch of the Matua Mahasangha. The Matuas are a Scheduled Caste group who came to India in large numbers following the partition in 1947. The Matuas are divided on political lines and thus, on CAA. A considerable part welcomes the legislation saying citizenship has been their longstanding demand though many of them are voters and hold sway in Bangoan and a few other constituencies.

The seat is reserved for SC candidates. The constituency mostly comprises North 24 Parganas district, where as per the last Census conducted in 2011, SC constituted 21.7 percent and ST 2.6 percent of the population. Among religious communities, Hindus were 73.46 percent and Muslims 25.82 percent, while others comprised the rest in 2011.

The winner and the runner-up in 2019 were both from the Matua community where current Union Minister of State Shantanu Thakur defeated his aunt Mamata Thakur of the TMC.

In the 2021 assembly elections, the BJP swept six of the seven assembly seats falling under this Lok Sabha constituency, and the TMC could win one. However, one of the BJP MLAs (from Bagda) subsequently switched to TMC and is currently contesting against Shantanu Thakur from Bongaon.

Barrackpur

In nearby Barrackpur, Arjun Singh is in the fray on a BJP ticket after being denied nomination by the state’s ruling TMC. Five years ago, he had switched to the BJP from TMC to win the 2019 polls, only to return three years later.

Singh defeated the then-TMC candidate Dinesh Trivedi (now in BJP) in 2019 by less than 15,000 votes. This time, Singh is facing TMC’s Partha Bhowmick and CPI(M) candidate Debdut Ghosh. The latter is supported by the Congress. In 2019, the combined mandate for the Left and Congress candidates were less than even a third of the runner-up.

Barrackpur extends from North 24-Parganas district to the northern fringes of Kolkata. Once an industrial area known for jute and textile mills, ordnance factories like the Ishapore Metal & Steel Factory, etc., it is now a shadow of the past.

Howrah

Howrah Lok Sabha constituency and its seven assembly segments have been TMC bastions. Footballer Prasun Banerjee won here in a bye-election in 2013 after the death of the TMC MP Ambica Banerjee and has since retained it.

Howrah Bridge or Rabindra Setu leads commuters from Kolkata across the Hooghly River to the massive red brick railway station. The two structures are almost iconic in Howrah. The area itself is largely unplanned and densely populated. Once it had a number of iron foundries which employed people from various states. The industry is going through severe problems now. This region reportedly has more than a quarter of voters comprising non-Bengali speakers, who are from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

Uluberia

Uluberia is another constituency in Howrah district which was once a major jute processing centre during the British Raj and even after Independence. However, the industry declined through time and now there is no big jute mill here. Around 70 establishments have come up in the industrial park in the region, which is spread over 128.69 acres. These units are into engineering, manufacturing, and also food products.

Currently, the constituency is said to comprise almost equal numbers of Hindu and Muslim voters. This is among the few Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal that the Indian Secular Front (ISF), led by the influential cleric of the shrine of Furfura Sharif in Hooghly district, Abbas Siddiqui, is contesting.

During the rule of the Left Front, Hannan Mollah of the CPI(M) won here a record eight times but was defeated in 2009 by TMC’s Sultan Ahmed. The latter’s death led to a bye-poll in 2018, which his wife Sajda Ahmed won, retaining the seat for the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC.

In the 2024 election, Sajda Ahmed is facing challengers Arun Uday Pal Chaudhary of BJP and Azahar Mollick of the Congress. The Left is currently supporting the Congress candidate.

Sreerampur

Sreerampur is also written as Srirampore, Serampore, among other spellings, and is in Hooghly (again, sometimes spelt Hugli, Hoogly, etc.) district. It was a Danish settlement founded in the 18th century, and acquired by the British in 1845.

Today, it is highly urbanised and an industrial area with jute, rice, and cotton mills being prominent. It also has manufacturing units for chemicals, rope, jewelry, handlooms, and metal polish.

This Lok Sabha seat earlier used to witness a poll battle between the Congress and the CPI(M) but in 1998 and 1999 Akbar Ali Khondkar wrested the seat for the TMC, only to lose it to the CPI(M) in 2004.

But since 2009, TMC leader Kalyan Banerjee has been representing this seat. In the current election, he is pitted against BJP’s Kabir Shankar Bose and Dipsita Dhar of the CPI(M). The Left candidate is supported by the Congress.

All the seven assembly segments within the Sreerampur Lok Sabha constituency went to the TMC in the 2021 state election.

Hooghly

Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency will witness the clash of two Bengali cine stars in this election, where BJP’s Locket Chatterjee will be defending the seat against a newcomer to polls and politics, Rachna Banerjee of TMC. The latter had been hosting the popular TV show for women titled ‘Didi No. 1’. Veteran politician Monodip Ghosh of CPI(M), supported by the Congress, has admitted to the media that he is facing an uphill task against the two celebrities.

The district is often spelt Hugli, Hoogly, or Hooghly. The name is derived probably from the ‘hogla’, a tall reed, which grows in abundance on the riverbanks and in the marshy lowlands below them.

The region has a unique colonial past with a Portuguese settlement at Bandel, a French colony at Chandannagore, a Danish settlement at Sreerampur, and a Dutch colony in Chinsurah.

Singur is part of this district and an assembly segment where the forcible acquisition of agricultural land for a car manufacturing unit was vehemently opposed by Mamata Banerjee. It will be remembered for partly being responsible for the fall of the Left Front after over three decades of rule.

Arambag

Among the seven assembly segments in the Arambag Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP won four and the TMC three in the 2021 state elections. The Parliamentary seat is reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates.

Though Aparupa Poddar of TMC wrested this seat from CPI(M)’s Sakti Mohan Malik in 2014 and retained it in 2019, her vote share fell drastically. While in 2014, Poddar won against Malik by a margin of almost 3.5 lakh votes, garnering nearly 55 percent of the mandate, the difference was less than 1,200 in the subsequent election where she managed a little over 44 percent. Runner-up in 2019, Tapan Kumar Roy of the BJP was barely 0.08 percent behind. Malik was third but with just about one lakh votes.

Besides polling data, there were allegedly certain adverse reports about Poddar. TMC has nominated Mitali Bag who is pitted against BJP’s Arup Kanti Digar and CPI(M) candidate Biplab Kumar Moitra. The Congress is in alliance with the Left.