West Bengal Lok Sabha elections 2024: Key constituencies and candidates in Phase 4

Up against Trinamool candidate Mahua Moitra is BJP’s Amrita Roy from the seat.

Eight seats in West Bengal will go to polls in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 13.

The state, which sends 42 seats to the Lower House, has already voted in three phases on April 19, April 26, and May 7, respectively. Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Bardhaman Purba, Burdwan-Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur and Birbhum will vote in Phase 4.

The key parties are All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a coalition of Left Front and Indian National Congress. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Trinamool bagged 22 seats. The BJP had won 18 seats and the Congress 2.

Here are the key candidates and constituencies to watch out for.

Asansol: Cradling the mining and industrial belt of India, this seat is set to witness a tough fight between Trinamool candidate Shatrughan Sinha and BJP’s Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia. Asansol, which borders Jharkhand, has a significant percentage of the Hindi-speaking population, mostly migrant workers from Bihar and UP. Five out of seven assembly segments went to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool in 2021. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s Babul Supriyo won.

Krishnanagar: Four months of being expelled over the alleged “cash for query” case from Lok Sabha, Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra is seeking re-election from her old seat. Up against her, the BJP fielded “Rajmata” (Queen Mother) Amrita Roy from the seat. Roy formally joined the BJP on March 20 this year. Trinamool won this seat in the 2009, 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Baharampur: Traditionally a bastion of the Congress, this seat has been represented by its MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury since 1999 till date. He will be facing Trinamool candidate Yusuf Pathan who will make his poll debut this time. Meanwhile, the BJP fielded its candidate Nirmal Kumar Saha.

Bardhaman-Durgapur: This region is known for altering political allegiance in every election.  Since its establishment in 2009, the constituency has sent CPI(M), Trinamool and BJP representatives once each to the Lok Sabha in the three previous polls. BJP candidate Dilip Ghosh faces Trinamool candidate and former India cricketer Kirti Azad and the Left–Congress alliance candidate Sukriti Ghoshal.

The voting will take place in subsequent phases on May 20, May 25 and June 1.  The election results will be declared on June 4.