Bengal: TMC eyes a hat-trick in Mathurapur, once a CPI(M) stronghold

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: MATHURAPUR (SC)

Date of election: May 19 (Phase 7)

The Mathurapur Lok Sabha constituency is located in the South 24 Parganas district and comprises the following segments since the 2009 delimitation: Patharpratima, Kakdwip, Sagar, Kulpi, Raidighi, Mandirbazar (SC) and Magrahat Paschim.

What happened in 2014:

TMC's Chaudhury Mohan Jatua, a former Union minister, won the seat defeating his nearest rival Rinku Naskar of the CPI(M) by 1.38 lakh votes. The BJP's Tapan Naskar received third position by winning around 70k votes while the Congress's Manoranjan Haldar got fourth position with 47.27k votes.

Total electors in Mathurapur constituency in 2014 were 14.85 lakh.

Vote share:

The TMC's vote-share in 2014 was 49.60 while the Left got around 38.67 per cent. The BJp ended up with 5.23 per cent vote share while the Congress got 3.73 per cent vote share.

History of Mathurapur constituency results: TMC won it in 2009 and retained five years later

Jatua won the Mathurapur constituency first time in 2009, bringing to a halt the CPI(M)'s two-decade dominance since 1989. It was once represented by the CPI(M)'s expelled leader Radhika Ranjan Pramanik while Basudeb Barman was its MP between 2004 and 2009. The TMC retained it in 2014.

Candidates contesting from Mathurapur in 2019:

• TMC: Chowdhury Mohan Jatua;
• Left: Sarat Haldar;
• BJP: Shyama Prasad Haldar;
• Congress: Krittibas Sardar