Asansol seat in Bengal: TMC’s Moon Moon Sen challenges BJP’s Babul Supriyo

Kolkata, April 11: The schedule for the 17th Lok Sabha election was announced by the Election Commission on Sunday, March 10. The election will be held in seven phases between April 11 and May 19 with the results to be declared on May 23. Of all the states in the country, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh will witness elections in seven phases.

Here we take a look at all the Lok Sabha constituencies (42) of Bengal and how parties have fared there over the years.

Constituency: ASANSOL

Date of election: April 29 (Phase 4)

The Asansol Lok Sabha constituency in West Burdwan district of Bengal comprises the following segments: Pandaveshwar, Raniganj, Jamuria, Asansol Dakshin, Asansol Uttar, Kulti and Barabani.

What happened in 2014:

One of the two seats that the BJP won in Bengal in the 2014 general election was Asansol. Singer-politician Babul Supriyo polled 4.19 lakh votes to defeat his nearest rival, TMC's Dola Sen by over 70k votes. CPI(M)'s Bansa Gopal Chowdhury, a former MP from the seat, finished third with 2.55 lakh votes while the Congress's Indrani Mishra ended up fourth with less than 50k votes.

Total electors in Asansol constituency in 2014 were 14.57 lakh.

Vote share:

The BJP received 36.76 per cent vote-share while the TMC got 30.59 per cent. The CPI(M) received 22.39 per cent vote share while the Congress received 4.25 per cent.

History of Asansol constituency results: Once a Left bastion, it swung right in 2014

The Asansol constituency is known for its Hindi-speaking population which helped the BJP to breach what was once a Left bastion (the CPI(M) won it for 10 terms, eight in a row). The TMC has never won this constituency and has fielded actor-politician Moon Moon Sen this time to counter the saffron party's celebrity MP, Babul Supriyo.

Candidates contesting from Asansol in 2019:

• BJP: Babul Supriyo;
• TMC: Moon Moon Sen;
• Left: Gauranga Chatterjee;
• Congress: Biswarup Mondal