Battle for Bengal: Decoding the phase 1 elections

The Election Commission will deploy at least 684 companies of CAPF in 10,288 booths spread in about 7,034 premises in the first phase of polling across 30 constituencies. The voters will be able to exercise their franchise from 7 am to 6.30 pm.

48 of the 191 candidates contesting the first phase of assembly elections in West Bengal or a little over 25 percent have declared criminal cases against themselves.

In its manifesto, the BJP promised to build a "Sonar Bangla" by providing employment, strengthening social security schemes and vowing to clear the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act in the first cabinet meeting of the new government.

On the other hand, the TMC promised a monthly Universal Basic Income for all families, a credit card scheme for students to pursue higher studies and the formation of a task force to examine the inclusion of several backward communities under the OBC category.

The Assembly polls in 294 constituencies in West Bengal will be held in eight phases between March 27 and April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2, along with that of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Purulia: Congress has fielded Partha Pratim Banerjee from Purulia in place of sitting MLA Sudip Mukherjee, who has recently joined the BJP. Sujoy Bandhopadhyay will be contesting from Trinamool Congress.

As per data available from the provisional reports of Census India, the population of Purulia in 2011 is 121,067. In the education field, the total number of literates in Purulia city is 89,000.

Medinipur: June Maliah, who recently joined the TMC, will be contesting against BJP’s Samit Kumar Das. TMC replaced June Maliah, who is a popular face of the Bengali film industry, with MLA Mrigendra Nath Maiti. The seat was one of the strongholds of Suvendu Adhikari, a former aide of Mamata Banerjee who switched to the BJP recently.

Jhargram: Birbaha Hansda of TMC will contest against Sukhamay Satpathy (of BJP and CPI candidate Madhuja Sen Roy. This was a Maoist stronghold before TMC stormed to power first in 2011.

Chhatna: The TMC has fielded Subhasis Batabyal from Chhatna. He will be contesting against BJP’s Satyanarayan Mukhopadhyay. The seat is currently held by Dhirendra Nath Layek of Other.

 Baghmundi: This is the only seat where BJP-ally the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) is contesting. AJSU candidate Ashutosh Mahato will be contesting against Nepal Mahata of Congress and Sushanta Mahato of TMC. The last two polls have seen Congress candidate Nepal Chandra Mahato winning.