North Kolkata Goes Under Poll Today

Kolkata: On Thursday, The West Bengal Legislative Assembly election 2016 enters the crucial urban core with the third phase covering seven north Kolkata seats, besides the politically volatile regions of Murshidabad, Burdwan and Nadia.

Murshidabad and Burdwan have often been described as Bengal’s killing fields because of their history of political violence through decades.

Two major events are expected to play a significant role in the voting today – The Narada sting video controversy and the Kolkata flyover collapse. Top Trinamool leaders have confessed in private that these two events have changed the complexion of the contest and introduced an element of doubt to their minds, particularly in urban pockets. None of them fears, however, that the result can be anything more drastic than a reduced vote share in urban seats.

Two of the constituencies in this round are hot seats. One is Jorasanko, where the Vivekananda flyover collapsed killing 27, injuring more than 100 and displacing several thousand residents. Even without the flyover collapse, this assembly seat is one where BJP hopes runs high. In this segment of north Kolkata, the BJP had led in 2014 with 45,000 votes to the 28,500 of the Trinamool Congress, while the Congress had polled 20,600 and the Left 15,400.

All 11 seats combined in Kolkata, the BJP had a vote share of 27.29 per cent, behind the Trinamool’s 35.60 per cent but ahead of the Left’s 19.63 per cent and the Congress’s 14.45. In Jorasanko, the BJP has fielded its former state president Rahul Sinha, one of the party’s most familiar faces in Kolkata, against sitting MLA Smita Bakshi of the Trinamool Congress. The contest is triangular, with the Left-Congress combine seen as strong enough to divide the opposition vote.