West Bengal Assembly election: What booth-wise data shows about battleground Nandigram

Of all the battles that figure in the five poll-bound Assemblies, none have quite grabbed the spotlight like the battle for West Bengal's Nandigram.

Located in South Bengal, the small town is playing host to the most fiery battle of all - Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her former protege who switched sides to the BJP, Suvendu Adhikari.

Over the past couple of Assembly and General Elections, Nandigram has been a bastion for the TMC. Led by then TMC MLA Suvendu Adhikari, the town has favoured Bengal's ruling party in successive elections since 2009.

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

Whether the TMC won the seat thanks to Suvendu or its top leader Mamata Banerjee is unknown.

And while data from previous elections are unable to answer that question yet, it does however reveal something rather intriguing - the rise in BJP's popularity.

An India Today story that looked into booth-level data for Nandigram noted that the BJP had in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections garnered nearly 30 per cent of the vote share across the booths in Nandigram I and Nandigram II (data presented in the 2011 census divides the town into two blocks) from a lacklustre 5.33 per cent in the 2016 Assembly elections.

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

In the same elections, TMC, which swept the Assembly polls with 66.78 per cent of the vote share(in 271 booths), had that figure fall by 4 percentage points in 2019 to 62.77 per cent (in 278 booths) across over 270 booths in Nandigram I and II.

In terms of booths won, the BJP's rise is staggering. Nandigram I and II combined had 271 booths in 2016 and 278 in 2019.

The BJP, which failed to win a single booth (out of 271) in 2019, won 34 booths (out of 278) in 2019. The TMC, virtually uncontested won 264 booths (out of 271) in 2016 but saw their tally fall in 2019 to 244 (out of 278).

While Mamata Banerjee may be worried by this, Suvendu Adhikari and the BJP will be buoyed by this seemingly positive trend.

The wait for polling booths to open is a short one, but the wait for the results is an agonisingly long one, and the Mamata Banerjee vs Suvendu Adhikari battle is one that has proved to be anything but a snoozefest.