STAR-SPANGLED CONTESTS ENLIVEN POLLS IN MID-BENGAL

Among the notable names are Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Yusuf Pathan and Shatrughan Sinha.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

Eight Lok Sabha seats spread across five districts of West Bengal will go to polls in the fourth phase of elections scheduled for 13 May, Monday. Around 1.5 crore voters will be eligible to exercise their franchise across the eight seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, out of the eight seats, the Trinamool Congress won four, the BJP won three and the Congress one seat.

This time, these eight seats will see a total of 75 candidates in the fray, but all eyes will be on the constituencies spread across the middle of Bengal which will see political heavyweights and well known names battle it out.

Among the notable names are state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is contesting from Baharampur against challenger Yusuf Pathan, Shatrughan Sinha from Asansol on a Trinamool Congress ticket against BJP’s S.S. Ahluwalia, and three-time Trinamool MP and former actor Satabdi Roy seeking a fourth term from Birbhum.

Star campaigners like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari have campaigned extensively in these seats for the BJP candidates while the Trinamool Congress supremo and party number two Abhishek Banerjee have crisscrossed these seats relentlessly to drum up support for their party candidates.

BAHARAMPUR

The biggest question dominating all political discourses here is whether the Congress will be able to retain its last bastion in West Bengal.

The Baharampur Lok Sabha seat in Murshidabad district has thrown up a triangular contest with state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a fivetime MP out to defend his fiefdom from his Trinamool Congress and BJP challengers.