New Delhi, March 1 – The Bhabanipur Assembly constituency, a key battleground in the April elections, serves as a reminder of the 2016 election, which was marked by intense competition and allegations, significantly influencing the political landscape of West Bengal.
Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee faced challenges from Congress candidate Deepa Dasmunshi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee Chandra Kumar Bose in 2016.
Bose, the grandson of Subhas Chandra Bose, joined the BJP in 2016 and later became the Vice President of the party's state unit. He also emerged as a potential candidate for the Chief Ministerial position.
However, Bose has since ended his association with the BJP, effective September 2023. His grandfather, Sarat Chandra Bose, was a barrister and freedom activist who played a crucial role in Subhas Chandra Bose's escape in 1941.
Amiya Nath Bose, a member of the fourth Lok Sabha (1967-1971) representing the Forward Bloc from West Bengal's Arambagh constituency, was Bose's father.
In the 2016 election, Bose finished third, securing less than 20% of the total votes.
He also lost to Mala Roy of the Trinamool Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha election from the Kolkata Dakshin constituency, by more than 1.5 lakh votes.
Notably, Bhabanipur is one of the seven Assembly constituencies that comprise the Kolkata Dakshin parliamentary seat.
In the 2016 election, Deepa Dasmunshi finished second, securing 40,219 votes and approximately 30% of the vote share.
She previously represented the Raiganj seat in Lok Sabha, winning in 2009, but lost it to Mohammed Salim of the Communist Party of India-Marxist in 2014.
In 2019, Salim finished third after the Trinamool candidate, while Dasmunshi came in fourth.
She never contested from Raiganj again.
Her husband and former Union Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi represented Raiganj in 1999 and retained it in 2004.
He suffered a major stroke in 2008 and remained in a coma, passing away in 2017.
Earlier, in 2011, Mamata Banerjee, then the leader of the opposition, paved her way to the Chief Minister's office through Bhabanipur.
Subrata Bakshi, a leader of the Trinamool Congress, vacated the seat in her favour after winning with a margin of nearly 50,000 votes and securing approximately 65% of the vote share.
In the by-election, Mamata Banerjee increased her lead to over 54,000 votes and secured a massive 77.5% vote share.
The Trinamool Congress had then won 184 out of the 226 seats contested, while the then-ally Congress won 42 out of the 66 seats they contested.
Among the opposition, the CPI-M secured 40 seats, while major Left Front allies like the CPI won two, Forward Bloc 11, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) seven.
The BJP did not field any candidates in the state Assembly.
In 2016, the Trinamool Congress won 211 seats, while the BJP managed only three, contesting the election on its own.
The principal opposition bloc in the state Assembly was the Congress-Left combine.
In 2021, Mamata Banerjee contested a by-election at Bhabanipur after losing to former aide and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari at Nandigram.
Sovandeb Chatterjee, a leader of the Trinamool Congress, won by nearly 29,000 votes and secured approximately 58% of the total votes.
Mamata Banerjee again triumphed in her "Para" (neighbourhood), winning with a margin of about 59,000 votes and securing approximately 72% of the vote share.
The Trinamool Congress, recognized as a national party by the Election Commission, won 215 seats, while the BJP emerged as the state's principal opposition party with 77 seats.
Once again, Bhabanipur is set to witness another clash, which this time is likely to hold higher political stakes for the titans – Mamata Banerjee and Suvendu Adhikari.