West Bengal election 2021: Here are 4 key electoral battles to watch out for in Phase 8

Touted as a close battle between the incumbent TMC and BJP, the West Assembly election is being conducted in 8 phases with the last round of polling on April 29. There are 283 candidates including 35 women in the fray for the 35 constituencies going to the polls on Thursday. These seats are spread over 4 districts- Murshidabad, Birbhum, Malda and Kolkata. The fate of the candidates shall be decided by more than 84.77 lakh voters including 41.21 lakh women and 158 transgenders. In the 8th phase, both BJP and TMC are contesting all 35 seats.

As a part of the Sanjukta Morcha, Congress, CPI(M) and ISF have fielded candidates in 19, 10 and 4 constituencies respectively.  The voter turnout for the seats that went to the polls in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh phases was 84.63 per cent, 86.11 per cent, 84.61 per cent, 79.90 per cent, 82.49 per cent, 79.11 per cent and 76.90 per cent respectively. The counting of votes is scheduled for May 2.

Here are the key battles:

1. Rampurhat: Asish Banerjee (TMC) vs Subhasis Choudhury (BJP) vs Sanjib Barman [CPI(M)]

Senior TMC leader Asish Banerjee is vying for re-election from this seat located in the Birbhum district. At present, he is the Minister in charge of Agriculture in the West Bengal government. Winning from this seat continuously since 2001, he beat Congress' Saiyed Siraj in the 2016 Assembly polls. CPI(M) is contesting from here on behalf of Sanjukta Morcha and has fielded Sanjib Barman. On the other hand, BJP has given the ticket to Subhasis Choudhury.

2. Bharatpur: Kamalesh Chatterjee (Congress) vs Humayun Kabir (TMC) vs Iman Kalyan Mukherjee (BJP)

Bharatpur will witness a fascinating three-way contest this time with Congress' Kamalesh Chatterjee seeking to retain his seat. In the previous election, he trounced TMC's Khadem Dastegir by a margin of 11,017 votes. However, Revolutionary Socialist Party's Id Mohammad emerged as the winner in 2011 with Congress' Daliya Begum as the runner-up. On this occasion, TMC has reposed faith in ex-IPS officer Humayun Kabir. Having joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party in February 2021, he served as the  Chandannagar Police Commissioner. BJP's Iman Kalyan Mukherjee is also in the fray. 

3. Baishnabnagar: Swadhin Kumar Sarkar (BJP) vs Azizul Hoque (Congress) vs Chandana Sarkar (TMC)

Falling under the Maldhaha Dakshin Lok Sabha constituency, this is one of the rare seats where Congress and BJP are the principal contenders. One of the 3 party MLAs to win in the 2016 polls, senior BJP leader Swadhin Kumar Sarkar will face off with Azizul Hoque of the Congress party. Incidentally, Hoque lost to Sarkar by 4497 votes in 2016. Meanwhile, Chandana Sarkar will be contesting from Baishnabnagar on a TMC ticket.

4. Jorasanko: Vivek Gupta (TMC) vs Meena Purohit (BJP) vs Ajmal Khan (Congress)

Jorasanko is a crucial seat in the Kolkata North district. TMC spokesperson and ex-Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Gupta has been nominated as the TMC candidate from Jorasanko. This is perceived as a TMC bastion with party candidate Smita Bakshi romping home in the last two elections. For instance, she beat BJP's Rahul Sinha by a narrow margin of 6,290 votes in the 2016 polls. She had a much better victory margin of 31,509 votes in 2011 when she relegated CPI(M)'s Janki Singh to the second phase. The other contender is Ajmal Khan of Congress.