Jangipur constituency in WB: Even BJP has fielded Muslim candidate in this Cong stronghold

Kolkata, March 29: 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: JANGIPUR

Date of election: April 23 (Phase 3)

The Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency in Murshidabad district of Bengal comprises the following seven segments: Suti; Jangipur; Raghunathganj; Sagardighi; Lalgola; Nabagram (SC) and Khargram (SC)

What happened in 2014:

The Jangipur constituency has remained a battleground between the Congress and Left over the years. It was from this constituency that former president Pranab Mukherjee had won both his Lok Sabha terms in 2004 and 2009 although he did not complete the second term as he became the president in 2012. His son Abhijit Mukherjee won the by-election to become an MP from this seat. He won again in 2014 and continued for five years.

Mukherjee received 3,78,201 votes in 2014 while his nearest rival Muzaffar Hossain of the CPI(M) got 3,70,040 votes. The Trinamool Congress finished third with its candidate Sk Nurul Islam getting 2,07,455 votes. The BJP's Samrat Ghosh finished fourth with 96,751 votes.

Total electors in Jangipur constituency in 2014 were 13,87,260.

Vote share:

The Congress's vote-share in Jangipur in 2014 was 33.79 per cent while that of the CPI(M) was 33.06. The TMC ended with 18.53 per cent and the BJP with 8.64 per cent vote share.

History of Jangipur constituency results: A battleground between Congress and Left

Jangipur has been witnessing parliamentary elections since 1967 and of the 14 times so far (including the 2012 by-election), both the Congress and the Marxists have won the seats seven times each. However, the Congress's vote-share was down to its lowest in the seat in 2014 after 34.7 per cent that it received in 1971. The BJP has fielded its first Muslim candidate, Mafuja Khatun, in Bengal in this seat and she is a former CPI(M) MLA from South Dinajpur district.

Jangipur has a high concentration of Muslim voters and all of Mukherjee's opponents are from the minority community.

The Left had initially not given a candidate from this seat but later gave the nomination to Zulfiqar Ali. With a narrow margin of 8,000 votes in the last parliamentary election in this seat, can Mukherjee continue to keep one of the last remaining Congress bastions this time?

Candidates contesting from Jangipur in 2019:

TMC: Khalilur Rahman;

BJP: Mafuja Khatun;

Left: Zulfiqar Ali

Congress: Abhijit Mukherjee