Bengal: Can film superstar Dev win again in Ghatal, once a CPI stronghold, this time?

Kolkata, April 13: 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: GHATAL

Date of election: May 12 (Phase 6)

The Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency is located in West Midnapore district and comprises the following segments: Panshkura Paschim, Sabang, Pingla, Debra, Daspur, Ghatal (SC) and Keshpur (SC).

What happened in 2014:

TMC's debutant candidate Dev (Deepak Adhikari) - a popular actor in Bengali film industry - won the seat last time beating his nearest rival Santosh Rana of the CPI by 2.6 lakh votes. Former Congress leader Manas Ranjan Bhunia finished third with 1.22 lakh votes for his earlier party while the BJP's Mohammad Alam finished fourth with 94.8k votes.

Total electors in Ghatal constituency in 2014 were 16.03 lakh.

Vote share:

The TMC's vote-share in 2014 was 50.16 per cent while the Left secured 31.08 per cent. The Congress got 8.99 per cent vote share and the BJP 6.94 per cent.

History of Ghatal constituency results: Superstar Dev won the CPI stronghold in 2014

The Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency had ceased to exist after 1977 when Panshkura Lok Sabha constituency replaced it but resurfaced in 2009 following delimitation. The Congress and the Left had won it three times each before TMC bagged it in 2014. TMC's Bikram Sarkar had won the seat in a by-election in 2000 but local CPI stalwart Gurudas Dasgupta won it in 2004.

Candidates contesting from Ghatal in 2019:

• TMC: Dev;
• Left: Tapan Kumar Ganguli;
• BJP: Bharati Ghosh (a former cop who was once known to be close with Mamata Banerjee);
• Congress: Khandakar Mohammad Saifullah