All eyes on Nandigram in the second phase of West Bengal polls

All eyes will be on the Nandigram Assembly constituency when voting for the second phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections will take place on Thursday.

Thirty seats including Nandigram in four districts will go to the polls in the second phase. The fate of 171 candidates will be decided by about 75 lakh voters in the second phase where 652 companies of the Central force have been deployed to prevent any untoward incident.

Read | Prohibitory orders in Nandigram ahead of high-stake polls

The contest at Nandigram will be an all or nothing battle for both the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee and her former protegee Suvendu Adhikari, who is the BJP candidate. If Mamata fails to secure a victory in Nandigram, then not only will she be unable to be the Chief Minister for the third time but her political stature will also suffer a severe blow.

However, if the TMC supremo is able to beat Adhikari, then her former lieutenant’s political career will be in jeopardy as a defeat in Nandigram will put a question mark on his position in the BJP.

Apart from Mamata and Adhikari, the fate of several other celebrity candidates will be decided in the second phase. The TMC has fielded Bengali film star Soham Chakraborty from the Chandipur Assembly seat in the East Medinipur district.

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BJP’s celebrity candidate actor Sayantika Bandyopadhyay will make her debut this time from the Bankura Assembly seat in Bankura district. Another celebrity candidate of the saffron party actor and TMC turncoat Hiran Chatterjee will be contesting from the Kharagpur Sadar seat in the West Medinipur district.

The seat was won by BJP State President Dilip Ghosh in the 2016 Assembly elections but was wrested by TMC in the 2019 by-elections.

BJP candidate and former cricketer Ashok Dinda will make his electoral debut from the Moyna in the East Medinipur district.

Although in the 2016 Assembly elections, the TMC won 21 out of the 30 seats which will go to polls in the second phase and the BJP only won one, the political scenario changed in the last Lok Sabha elections when the saffron party got a lead in 12 seats. The TMC led in 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

BJP’s vote share in the 30 seats shot up from 7.38% in the 2016 Assembly elections to 42.40% in the last Lok Sabha elections. TMC’s vote share came down from 47.88% in the 2016 Assembly elections to 45.89% in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Also read — Goons from other states have entered Nandigram: Mamata urges EC for action

Infographics for phase II of West Bengal Assembly elections:

Total seats: 30
Number of candidates: 171
Total voters: 7594549
Male voters: 3880955
Female voters:3713508
Polling stations: 10620