Birbhum seat in Bengal: TMC actor-candidate Satabdi Roy has dominated for 10 years now

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: BIRBHUM

Date of election: April 29 (Phase 4)

Once a reserved seat, Birbhum became a free seat since the 2009 elections. It comprises the following sections: Dubrajpur (SC), Suri, Sainthia (SC), Hansan, Rampurhat, Nalhati and Murarai.

What happened in 2014:

TMC's actor-politician candidate Satabdi Roy retained the seat she had won first time in 2009. Roy received 4.6 lakh votes which was 67k more than her nearest candidate Elahi Qamre Mahammad of the CPI(M). The BJP's actor candidate Joy Banerjee finished third with 2.37 lakh votes while the Congress's Syed Siraj Jimmi received 1.32 lakh votes.

Total electors in Birbhum constituency in 2014 were 14.89 lakh.

Vote share:

The TMC received 36.10 per cent vote share as against the Left's 30.83 per cent. The BJP ended up with 18.48 per cent vote share while that of the Congress was 10.35.

History of Birbhum constituency results: TMC breached a strong Left bastion for first time in 2014

The Congress had dominated this seat between 1952 and 1971 after which the CPI(M) won it for 10 consecutive terms (1971-2009) with Ramchandra Dome winning it six times on the trot before shifting base to the now-reserved seat of Bolpur. The TMC breached it in 2009 and has kept it for a decade now.

Candidates contesting from Birbhum in 2019:

• TMC: Satabdi Roy;
• Left: Rezaul Karim;
• BJP: Dudhkumar Mondal;
• Congress: Imam Hussain