West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee is banking on her trusted lieutenants to campaign for her in her own assembly constituency Bhabanipur, even as she goes on the offensive against arch rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) across the state, especially focusing on North Bengal where the latter is perceived to be stronger. Bhabanipur has been a TMC bastion since 2011 and Mamata Banerjee represented it in 2011 and 2016. (@AITCofficial X)

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The south Kolkata constituency, which goes to polls on April 29, is set to witness a high-voltage battle with the BJP fielding Suvendu Adhikari to challenge the chief minister from Bhabanipur. Adhikari, once a trusted confidante of Banerjee, joined the BJP in December 2020 (ahead of the 2021 assembly elections) and defeated his one-time mentor from Nandigram in 2021. It was the one bright spot for the BJP which won 77 of the 294 assembly seats in the state, belying its performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when it won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats.

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“Banerjee will be away from Kolkata most of the time over the next one month as she will lead the party’s campaign across the state along with Abhishek Banerjee. Meanwhile some of the party’s veteran leaders close to Banerjee will lead the campaign in Bhabanipur during her absence,” said a senior TMC leader.

Firhad Hakim, a cabinet minister and one of Banerjee’s trusted lieutenants, campaigned at Chetla in Bhabanipur on Monday and Tuesday. Hakim, who doubles as the mayor of Kolkata, is the ward councillor from Chetla.

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“I am campaigning from Chetla. I am just reminding people that Mamatadi is their own daughter. The people are with Mamatadi. We have already said that this time we will win from Bhabanipur with a margin of more than 60,000 votes. When we are campaigning in Bhabanipur, people are already saying we need not come and campaign as they are with didi. We are hitting the streets just to exchange greetings with the people,” he told reporters on Monday.

Senior TMC leaders aware of the developments told HT that apart from Hakim, other leaders such as Aroop Biswas, state minister and Subrata Bakshi, party president, will also campaign for Banerjee in Bhabanipur. This apart there are eight ward councillors and the party’s star campaigners who will also campaign in the constituency.

Bhabanipur has been a TMC bastion since 2011 and Banerjee represented it in 2011 and 2016. She moved to Nandigram in 2021 and lost, although her party won from Bhabanipur; she won the by-election in October 2021 (five months after the results of the assembly elections were declared in May 2021) with a record margin of 58,832 votes against her nearest rival Priyanka Tibrewal of the BJP.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, TMC’s Mala Roy won the South Kolkata parliamentary seat defeating BJP’s Debasree Chaudhuri by a margin of 1,87,231 votes. In Bhabanipur, which is a part of the South Kolkata parliamentary seat, Roy had a lead of 8,207 votes.

“Everyone knows how the by-election was held in 2021. After that the Lok Sabha polls were held. The margin of 58,000 votes is not there anymore. It has already come down to 8,000 votes. Already 45,000 names are gone in breakfast and another 2,000 have been dropped in lunch,” Adhikari told reporters on Monday. His reference to the meals was about the special intensive revision of electoral rolls. The BJP has consistently maintained that the state’s rolls have a lot of illegal voters, and that a clean electoral roll will result in the defeat of the TMC.

Thus far, the revised roll has excluded 6.18 million people, with the fate of another 6 million being under adjudication. A supplementary roll published Monday adjudicated on 2.9 million (of the 6 million) people, but details of number of exclusions were not available till Tuesday evening.

Adhikari said that he would win from Bhabanipur with a margin of 25,000 votes.

Election Commission officials said that at least 46,812 names were deleted from the electoral roll of Bhabanipur . While 44,470 names were dropped in the draft roll, another 2,342 names were dropped after hearing in the final roll.And 14,154 voters’ claims are under adjudication.

Even though Banerjee is yet to hit the streets in Bhabanipur, Adhikari launched his campaign there from March 19, four days after the EC announced the poll dates. Banerjee held a closed-door meeting with party leaders and workers in Bhabanipur on March 22.

“Obviously we want didi to win from Bhabanipur again. She has been with us round the year. What’s the BJP’s activity here? TMC leaders, who were either dropped or betrayed the party, are now with the BJP. She will win hands down,” said Sudeb Pal, a tea stall owner in Chetla area.

“When it comes to choosing between didi and Suvendu, we will always choose didi,” said Raktima Das, a housewife.