The much anticipated Assembly elections in West Bengal will kick off on Saturday with the first phase of polling taking place in 30 constituencies in five districts. Apparently it will be a three-cornered fight among the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the BJP and the alliance of the Left Front, Congress and the Indian Secular Front (ISF). But it is likely to be a highly polarised contest between the TMC and the BJP as the Left Front and Congress are struggling to retain political relevance in Bengal.
Compared to the 2016 Assembly elections, the political scenario in the state has significantly changed with the BJP coming up as the principal opposition after winning a record 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Bengal.
Even as the BJP failed to win not even one seat among the 30 poll-bound seats in the 2016 Assembly elections, it gained lead in 20 of them in the last Lok Sabha elections. TMC won 27 out of the 30 poll-bound seats in 2016 while Congress bagged two seats and Left Front, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) got one seat each. BJP was able to win only three seats in the last Assembly elections.
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The saffron party has improved on its 2016 performance in the 30 seats also in terms of vote share. While the BJP got only 8.6% votes in these Assembly seats in 2016, its vote share shot up to 46.31% in the last Lok Sabha elections. TMC, which got 50.39% votes in these seats in 2016, was pushed to the second spot in the last Lok Sabha elections with 42.01% votes.
According to a report released by the West Bengal Elections Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 48 (25%) out of the 191 candidates in the first phase have declared criminal cases against them. It also stated that 42 (22%) candidates have declared serious criminal cases against them.
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The CPI(M) has 10 (56%) out of 18 candidates, the BJP has 12 (41%) out of 29 candidates, TMC has 10 (35%) out of 29 candidates, Congress has 2 (33%) out of 6 candidates, SUCI-C has 3 (11%) out of 28 candidates and the BSP has 1( 9%) out of 11 candidates who have declared criminal cases against them in their affidavits.
The TMC has 9 (31%), BJP has 4 (41%), CPI(M) has 2 (33%), Congress has 2 (33%), SUCI and BSP has one candidate each with declared assets of more than Rs. 1 crore.