Lok Sabha election 2019: A look at West Bengal constituencies: JALPAIGURI

Kolkata, March 14: 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: JALPAIGURI (reserved for Scheduled Castes)

Date of election: April 18 (Phase 2)

Since 2009, the Jalpaiguri constituency in North Bengal comprises seven segments and they are: Mekliganj (SC), Dhupguri (SC), Maynaguri (SC), Jalpaiguri (SC), Rajganj (SC), Dabgram-Fulbari and Mal (ST).

What happened in 2014:

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the ruling Trinamool Congress won in Jalpaiguri constituency, ending a long dominance of the CPI(M). Bijoy Chandra Barman (4,94,773 votes) defeated his nearest rival - CPI(M)'s Mahendra Kumar Roy (4,25,167 votes), the winner of the 2009 election, by 4,25,167 votes.

The BJP finished third in the table with its candidate Satyalal Sarkar getting 2,21,593 votes. The Congress's Sukhbilas Barma finished fourth with 87,588 votes. NOTA got 16,541 votes.

Vote share:

The TMC got almost 38 per cent vote share while the CPI(M) got 32.64 per cent. The BJP got 17.01 per cent of vote share and the Congress ended with 6.72 per cent.

In the 2014 election, the district of Alipurduar had 12,83,394 valid voters.

History of Jalpaiguri constituency results: TMC breached the Left stronghold in 2014

Jalpaiguri remained under the Congress for the first three general elections in 1962, 1967 and 1971. An independent candidate won in 1977 and from 1980 till 2009, it remained a CPI(M) stronghold. Minati Sen won three consecutive terms while Jitendra Nath Das and Manik Sanyal won two consecutive terms each.

Candidates this time: The TMC has fielded Bijoy Chandra Barman from the constituency this time well.