Lok Sabha poll 2019: TMC eyes Maldaha Uttar, a Congress stronghold, after sitting MP shifts base

Kolkata, March 25: 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: MALDAHA UTTAR

Date of election: April 23 (Phase 3)

The Maldaha Uttar Lok Sabha constituency is a comparatively new one that came into existence after the now-defunct Malda constituency was bifurcated before the 2009 Lo Sabha polls. The seven segments under this constituency are: Habibpur (ST); Gazole (SC); Chanchal; Harishchandrapur; Malatipur; Ratua and Maldaha (SC).

What happened in 2014:

The Congress's Mausam Benazir Noor contested from this seat as the sitting MP and won her second successive term. A member of the region's politically influential Choudhury family, Noor received 3,88,609 votes while her nearest rival - CPI(M)'s Khagen Murmu got 3,22,904 votes. The Trinamool Congress finished third with its celebrity candidate Soumitra Roy getting 1,97,313 votes. The BJP's Subhash Krishna Goswami received 1,79,000 votes. Noor's winning margin was by 67,705 votes.

Total electors in Maldaha Uttar constituency in 2014 were 14,20,832.

Vote share:

The Congress received 33.41 per cent vote-share in Maldaha Uttar while the CPI(M) got 27.76 per cent. The TMC ended up with nearly 17 per cent vote share while the BJP got less than one per cent.

History of Maldaha Uttar constituency results: A Congress stronghold that the TMC can breach this time

Malda has always been a stronghold of the Congress and more particularly, the family of ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, a powerful leader from the state and also a former railways minister. Choudhury had won from this seat for eight consecutive terms between 1980 and 2006 and was replaced by his brother Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury after his death.

After the bifurcation, Mausam Noor, niece of Ghani Khan Choudhury, became an MP from the seat in 2009 at the age of 30. She won again in 2014 by a bigger margin. However, Noor recently joined the TMC vowing to fight the BJP and has been fielded from the same seat by her new party.

Candidates contesting from Maldaha Uttar in 2019:

• TMC: Mausam Benazir Noor;
• BJP: Khagen Murmu;
• Left: Biswanath Ghosh
• Congress: Isha Khan Choudhury