Bengal Assembly Elections: Congress Hopes To Bounce Back In Chowranghee

Kolkata: With Bengal all set for the third phase of poll tomorrow, eyes are on the historic Chowranghee Assembly seat in Kolkata where Congress is hoping to bounce back under the leadership of Somen Mitra.

With around 204373 voters, the constituency is all set to witness a three cornered fight between Congress, which is fighting in an alliance with CPI(M), ruling Trinamool Congress and BJP.

The Chowranghee Assembly seat has, since its inception, been a Congress bastion which has elected Congress stalwarts and former chief ministers like Bidhan Chandra Roy and Siddhartha Sankar Ray.

The Chowranghee constituency which had always elected a Congressman as their representative except in 1977, changed loyalty in 2001 and chose a Trinamool nominee as their representative.

In 2011, Mr Mitra's wife Sikha fought the poll battle from the seat as a Trinamool Congress candidate when the party had allied with Congress and won by more than 57,000 votes, securing 71 per cent of the total votes polled.

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She resigned from her post as legislator and joined Congress in 2014.

In the 2014 Assembly bypoll, Trinamool's Nayana Bandopadhyay, wife of the party's lawmaker Sudip Bandopadhyay, won the seat by a margin of more than 14,000 votes by defeating her nearest BJP rival.

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Mr Mitra, a seven-time legislator and one-time lawmaker (from Trinamool), is a known figure in Chowringhee constituency area, and is all set to contest from this seat as a Congress candidate. He will take on sitting legislator Nayana Bandopadhyay.

BJP's Ritesh Tiwari, SUCI(C), LJP and three other independents are also in fray for the seat.

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Mr Mitra, who had joined TMC in 2009 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Diamond Harbour constituency that year as its candidate, resigned from the party and joined his parent party in February 2014.

A known name in Bengal politics since the late sixties, Mr Mitra, known for his organisational skills, is one of the main architects of Congress and CPI(M) alliance in Bengal.

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When the alliance between Congress and CPI(M) hit a roadblock over sharing of seats, it was Mr Mitra who stepped in to resolve the problem.

"The alliance is not between political parties but it is an alliance of the people, who want to oust the authoritarian TMC government. It is the need of the hour to forge an alliance and forget the differences, as we are responsible to the society," he told PTI.

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Mr Mitra said he has seen all state governments since independence, but has never seen "such a corrupt government like the one by TMC."

"I have seen all the Congress governments, United Front government and also the 34 years of Left Front. But I have never seen such a corrupt government in power, which is involved in chit fund business and syndicates and openly seek bribes," Mr Mitra said.

Poll arithmetic, however, seems to be in Trinamool's favour. Mr Mitra had unsuccessful contested in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Kolkata North against Trinamool's Sudip Bandyopadhyay and had lost his deposit.

"It is not a fight between Mitra and Nayana Bandopadhayay. But it is fight between him and Mamata Banerjee and Mitra will win," said a Congress worker of Chowranghee.

Nayana, however, was confident of winning the polls with a much bigger margin.

"How come someone who had lost his deposit fighting against me can even dream of winning in Chowrangee. TMC will win this seat every time there is an election. None can defeat TMC," Sudip Bandyopadhyay told PTI.

The Chowrangee constituency, which covers the heart of the city and houses various old buildings, the historic Esplande area, Shahid Minar, Firangi Kalibari, has both Bengali and non-Bengali speaking population.

BJP candidate Ritesh Tiwari, however, was hopeful of winning the seat, where he had emerged second in the Assembly bypoll two years ago.

"I am confident of winning the polls this time. The people will reject the Congress-CPI(M) alliance and corrupt TMC," he said.