Lok Sabha election 2019: TMC won Balurghat, a Left bastion, for first time in 2014

Kolkata, March 20: 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: BALURGHAT

Date of election: April 23 (Phase 3)

Since 2009, Balurghat Lok Sabha constituency comprises seven segments and they are: Itahar; Kushmandi (SC); Kumarganj; Balurghat; Tapan (ST); Gangarampur (SC) and Harirampur.

What happened in 2014:

The ruling TMC breached the bastion of Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) which had been winning from Balurghat without a break since 1977. In 2014, TMC's Arpita Ghosh, a theatre personality, defeated her nearest opponent - RSP's Bimalendu Sarkar - by over a lakh votes. Ghosh received 4,09,641 votes while Sarkar got 3,02,677 votes.

The BJP's Biswapriya Roy Choudhury bagged 2.23 lakh votes while the Congress's Om Prakash Mishra finished a distant fourth with around 80,000 votes.

Total electors in Balurghat constituency in 2014 were 12,49,453.

Vote share:

The TMC received 38.5 per cent vote-share in Balurghat while the RSP candidate got 28.5 per cent vote share. The BJP, which had finished second in this seat in the 1999 and 2004 elections, received 21 per cent vote-share while the Congress's share was around 7.6 per cent.

History of Balurghat constituency results: TMC won the seat for the first time in 2014

The RSP had won Balurghat for 10 straight terms between 1977 and 2014. Before 1977, the Congress was the dominant force in this constituency, winning it five out of six times between 1952 and 1977. The Communist Party of India won from Balurghat in 1962.

Candidates contesting from Balurghat in 2019:

TMC: Arpita Ghosh;

Left: Ranen Barman (four-time MP from Balurghat between 1996 to 2009);

Congress: Sadik Sarkar