4 Key Seats To Watch Out For As Bengal Goes To Polling In Fourth Phase Today

The fourth phase today will decide the political fate of political bigwigs inlcuding Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Mahua Moitra, SS Ahluwalia, and Dilip Ghosh, among others.

BJP candidate Amrita Roy (L), Congress candidate Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (C), and TMC's Mahua Moitra (R) ( Image Source :PTI )

As the polling for the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections is currently underway at 96 parliamentary constituencies across 10 states and one Union Terriorty, and 203 assembly seats in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal is headed for a high stakes electoral battle on eight Lok Sabha constituencies today.

The fourth phase today will decide the political fate of political bigwigs inlcuding Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Mahua Moitra, SS Ahluwalia, and Dilip Ghosh, among others.

The eight Lok Sabha constituencies where polling is being held today include Asansol, Baharampur, Ranaghat, Bardhaman Purba, Krishnanagar, Bardhaman-Durgapur, Bolpur and Birbhum.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Vs Yusuf Pathan In Baharampur

Congress's Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has been winning the Baharampur Lok Sabha constituency located in Bengal's Murshidabad since 1999, for five times in a row. 

As per media reports, the Trinamool Congress walked out of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc in Bengal due to the Baharampur seat, which is represented by Congress's candidate since 1999, Chowdhury. Reporytedly, the TMC supremo did not want the grand old party to have this seat and therefore the two parties could not reach a seat sharing agreeement here.

Against Congress's Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Trinamool has fielded former cricketer Yusuf Pathan. It will be interesting to watch if Pathan would be able to wrest the seat from the Congress state president, who is also an outspoken Mamata critic.

Dilip Ghosh Vs Kirti Azad In Bardhaman-Durgapur

In the Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha constituency, which was held by Bharatiya Janata Party's SS Ahluwalia in 2019, the saffron party has now

fielded Dilip Ghosh, who will lock horns with TMC candidate Kirti Azad. 

 

The CPI(M) is represented by Sukriti Ghoshal.

 

Dilip Ghosh is a BJP veteran in the state and is often in news due to his controversial statements. Once a BJP state president, Ghosh was sent to Andaman for establishing a base for the saffron camp.

 

Ghosh is the sitting MP of Mediniput and was previously fielded from Kharagpur Sadar Assembly seat in 2016. Azad was a team member of the first  cricket World Cup win in 1983 and has been BJP's MP from Darbhanga.

 

Azad is the sone of former Bihar Chief Minister, Bhagawat Jha Azad of the Congress, and was suspended from the saffron party after he charged the late Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of corruption in the Delhi cricket board.

 

Later, he joined the grand old party and contested from Dhanbad, but lost. 

In 2021, he joined TMC, and is fielded here by the party. He is the TMC in charge of Goa.

 

Mahua Moitra Vs Amrita Roy In Krishnanagar

 

Krishnanagar has been Trinamool's bastion since 2009.

Mahua Moitra, senior TMC leader, who has been nominated from Krishnanagar again, was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December,2023, in a bribe-for-question scam. Through 2024 Lok Sabha elections, she will now be seeking a re-election from her Krishnanagar seat in a bid to make a re-entry to the Parliament.

BJP has fielded Amrita Roy against TMC candidate Mahua Moitra. Roy belongs to Krishnanagar's royal family, and her husband Soumish Chandra Roy is the descendant of Maharaja Krishnachandra Roy, after whom Krishnanagar was named.

Roy is referred to as "Rani Ma" in the Lok Sabha constituency, and this will be her maiden election, while Moitra is vying for a second term from here.

Shatrughan Sinha Vs SS Ahluwalia In Asansol

SS Ahluwalia, a former Union minister and a two-time MP, has now been nominated to contest Asansol by the Bharatiya Janata Party. TMC has however, nominated veteran actor turned politician, Shatrughan Sinha, from the Asanol seat.

Sinha is the sitting MP as he won the seat in 2022's by-election, following Babul Supriyo resignation from the saffron party.