Bolpur seat in Bengal: Can TMC win again what was once Somnath Chatterjee’s fortress?

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: BOLPUR (SC)

Date of election: April 29 (Phase 4)

Once an unreserved seat, Bolpur became a reserved one for the Scheduled Castes and comprises the following segments: Ketugram, Mangalkot, Ausgram (SC), Bolpur, Nanoor (SC), Labpur and Mayureshwar.

What happened in 2014:

Former TMC leader Anupam Hazra won the seat in 2014, defeating sitting MP Ramchandra Dome by over 2.3 lakh votes. Hazra polled over 6.3 lakh votes. The BJP's Kamini Mohan Sarkar came third with 1.97 lakh votes while the Congress's Tapan Kumar Saha finished fourth with around 47k votes.

Total electors in Bolpur constituency in 2014 were 15.29 lakh.

Vote share:

The TMC received 48.34 per cent vote-share followed by the CPI(M) which got 30.24 per cent. The BJP ended up with 15.13 per cent vote share and the Congress a meagre 3.6 per cent.

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

The Congress had won the Bolpur constituency in 1967 but ever since, the CPI(M) went on winning it till 2014. Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee had won from Bolpur in a by-election in 1985 and continued to win from there till 2004. In 2009, Dome won from Bolpur after it became a reserved one in 2009 and Hazra beat him in 2014.

Candidates contesting from Bolpur in 2019:

• TMC: Asit Kumar Mal;
• Left: Ramchandra Dome;
• BJP: Ramprasad Das;
• Congress: Abhijit Saha