The first phase of the much-anticipated election to the West Bengal Assembly will be held on Monday. It will cover the six north Bengal districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda, with a total of 54 seats out of the 294 in the State.
On the eve of the election, Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta assured the electorate that “strong police arrangements” had been made. Some 97.42-lakh voters are on the rolls in the first phase of election to be held in 12,131 polling booths.
A total of 364 candidates, including 102 Independents, are contesting in this phase. The fate of 11 Ministers in the Left Front government will be determined during the day.
The election in the region is being closely watched as there have been changes over the recent past in political equations in certain areas where the Left Front has had a better track record than its opponents.
This will be the first time that the support for the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which has grown in prominence in the Darjeeling hills through its spearheading the movement for a separate state of Gorkhaland, will be tested in an election.
It will be challenged by, among others, the Gorkha National Liberation Front that was the principal political force for more than two decades till the formation of the GJM in October 2007 and is now seeking to stage a comeback.
The entry into the fray of the tribal grouping, the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad, in the Dooars region of the adjoining Jalpaiguri district, which has a large tribal population is also a first-time development in north Bengal.
The Muslim vote will be crucial in the two districts of Uttar Dinajpur and Malda, where the community forms a substantial section of the population.
The Trinamool Congress will be seeking to make inroads into north Bengal, where its alliance partner, the Congress, has a greater presence unlike in the rest of the State.
This phase is particularly significant for the Congress, as it will cover 27 of the 65 seats allotted to the party.
Whether or not dissident Congress leaders will have an impact is another issue that has generated a lot of interest. The dissidents were subsequently suspended by the party leadership, but they have chosen to contest from several seats in the region.
