Kolkata: The city’s heart has beaten for the Trinamool, but in a desperate attempt to add some drama to an uneven contest, BJP fielded Santosh Pathak, an immensely popular Congress councillor from ward 45, in the Chowringhee assembly constituency. The urban seat has witnessed the heaviest voter deletions among Kolkata’s assembly constituencies — 87,725 — shrinking its electorate from 2.1 lakh to 1.3 lakh.Trinamool has nominated Nayna Bandyopadhyay, who has represented the constituency as MLA since 2014. Once a Congress fortress, Chowringhee shifted decisively into the Trinamool camp in 2011. The constituency has a significant minority population, estimated at 40% in the 2011 Census, along with a substantial Hindi-speaking electorate and a sizeable Bengali population.The Trinamool campaign here on social welfare schemes has been drowned by the burning issue of SIR following large-scale deletions of voters. BJP continues to harp on “change”, “anti-corruption” and “development of the state”.Chowringhee saw 74,553 deletions under absent, shifted, dead and duplicate category, followed by 2,748 deletions in the Feb 28 list and later 10,424 after the judicial scrutiny. A few thousand new voters were also added to the roll.Bandyopadhyay said, “I am doing door-to-door campaigns and can make out that the social welfare schemes introduced by our govt are immensely popular and people are happy about them. But the main issue has now become the worry over voting rights. People across religions and communities in my constituency have been hit by SIR. During my campaign in ward 47, I met an elderly woman who held my hand and pleaded to restore her voting right. She has been voting for decades, yet her name was deleted. The situation is so bad that even asking for votes has become scary as so many people have lost their rights. It is ridiculous. The fight will come from that sentiment. The common people will give their answer to this harassment during polling.”Pathak said, “People want change. This sentiment reflects not only in Chowringhee but across Bengal. People want to remove the corrupt TMC govt by any means. I am doing extensive door-to-door campaigns to reach out to the people as it is essential to connect with the voters and tell them what changes we will bring to the state if BJP wins. The response has been positive. Chowringhee has a mixed population and I am confident about my victory.” North Kolkata BJP district president Tamoghno Ghosh pointed out, “BJP has an existing vote base among Bengalis and Hindi-speaking voters. It was trailing by nearly 15,000 votes from Chowringhee in the 2024 LS election. So with Pathak joining BJP, his personal votebank, when combined with the party’s votes, will make the fight tougher for the TMC.”Yet minority-dominated wards have repeatedly provided Trinamool with decisive cushions. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, TMC won four Chowringhee wards — 44, 46, 53 and 62 — and built strong leads there through consolidated minority support. “In the 2024 LS poll, BJP held leads in seven wards (45, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51 and 52). However, the large leads TMC secured in minority-majority wards, such as 44 and 53, effectively offset those gains. TMC’s final lead in the last election was from ward 62, with 14,000 votes. Therefore, even if BJP leads in some other wards, the gap increases significantly in minority wards and is difficult to recover. In addition, the govt’s welfare schemes will give TMC an edge over others,” said Indranil Kumar, councillor of ward 51.“The sharpest deletions of nearly 12,500 names have occurred in minority-heavy wards 44 and 62, which are traditional TMC vote bastions. Ward 53 has seen almost 7,000 deletions, while in other wards there has been an average deletion of 3,000-4,000 voters,” said a local source, adding, “In spite of such heavy deletions, these wards will provide a significant lead in this election. Extensive door-to-door campaigning is being done in the wards TMC lost to recover votes.“
