Bengal: Barasat has become a TMC fortress now after they have won it 4 out of 5 times

Kolkata, April 15: 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: BARASAT

Date of election: May 19 (Phase 7)

The Barasat Lok Sabha constituency is located in the North 24 Parganas district and comprises the following segments: Habra, Ashoknagar, Rajarhat New Town, Bidhannagar, Madhyamgram, Barasat and Deganga.

What happened in 2014:

Sitting MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar of the TMC retained the seat in 2014, defeating her nearest rival Mortaza Hossain of the Forward Bloc by 1.09 lakh votes. The BJP's celebrity candidate PC Sorcar Junior stood third with 2.96 lakh votes, falling just 55,638 short of the second position holder. The Congress's Riju Ghosal came fourth with just over 40,000 votes.

Total electors in Barasat constituency in 2014 were 15 lakh.

Vote share:

The TMC's vote-share in 2014 was 41.36 while the Left got around 28 per cent. The BJP received 23.35 per cent vote share and the Congress 3.2 per cent.

History of Barasat constituency results: All party had their share of success

Once a stronghold of the Congress and Left, the TMC has won this seat four out of last five times since 1998. Among the Left parties, the Forward Bloc dominated it most number of times (six) with its last win coming in 2004.

Candidates contesting from Barasat in 2019:

• TMC: Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar;
• Left: Haripada Biswas;
• BJP: Mrinal Kanti Debnath;
• Congress: Subrata Dutta