Bengal: State minister Suvendu Adhikari’s brother Dibyendu eyes to win Tamluk again for TMC

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: TAMLUK

Date of election: May 12 (Phase 6)

The Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency is located in East Midnapore district and comprises the following segments: Tamluk, Panshkura Purba (SC), Moyna, Nandakumar, Mahisadal, Haldia (SC) and Nandigram.

What happened in 2014:

State minister Suvendu Adhikari won the seat by polling over seven lakh votes to retain it. He defeated his nearest candidate Shek Ibrahim Ali of the CPI(M) by nearly 2.5 lakh votes. Badsha Alam of the BJP finished third with 86.2k votes while the Congress's Anwar Ali Sk finished fourth with less than 30,000 votes. In 2016, after Suvendu won the state Assembly election to become an MLA and a minister, his brother Dibyendu contested a by-poll and retained Tamluk for the TMC.

Total electors in Tamluk constituency in 2014 were 15.2 lakh.

Vote share:

The TMC's vote-share in 2014 was 53.57 per cent while the Left finished with 35.15 per cent. The BJP got 6.45 per cent vote share and the Congress 2.22 per cent.

History of Tamluk constituency results: TMC won what was a CPI(M) bastion in 2009 and retained it in 2014

Tamluk was once a stronghold of former Left leader Lakshman Seth who won here from 1998 to 2009 but Suvendu ended the CPI(M)'s influence in the constituency by defeating Lakshman in 2009 by 1.72 lakh votes.

Candidates contesting from Tamluk in 2019:

• TMC: Dibyendu Adhikari;
• Left: Sk Ibrahim Ali;
• BJP: Siddhartha Naskar;
• Congress: Lakshman Seth