Jalpaiguri (SC) and Alipurduars (ST) are the other two constituencies which will go to polls in the first of the seven-phase elections in West Bengal, which has 42 Lok Sabha seats.
With both BJP and the TMC going all out to woo voters in these north Bengal seats, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed public meetings in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar while TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and the party’s number two Abhishek Banerjee also held several rallies and roadshows in these places.
All three constituencies were won by the BJP in the 2019 general elections. In the 2021 assembly polls, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar remained BJP’s stronghold with the party winning five of seven segments in the first and six in the second constituency, but in Jalpaiguri, the TMC had the upper hand, winning five and the saffron party managed to win two.
While PM Modi trained his guns on alleged corruption by ruling party leaders in the state and law and order issues including the Sandeshkhali atrocities on women and villagers, the TMC leadership focussed on the alleged denial of central funds to the state, the 2021 Sitalkuchi firing, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and a recent storm in Jalpaiguri that claimed five lives.
The BJP has renominated Jayanta Roy in Jalpaiguri and Pramanik in Cooch Behar but replaced last time’s winner John Barla with the party’s Madarihat MLA Manoj Tigga. The TMC has, however, changed candidates in all three seats, fielding Prakash Chik Baraik in Alipurduar, Nirmal Chandra Roy in Jalpaiguri and Sitai MLA Basunia in Cooch Behar. The Left Front and the Congress are fighting in a seat-sharing alliance in the state in the 2024 elections. Having fought separately in 2019, candidates of the Left parties and the grand old party could manage only single-digit vote shares in each of the three seats.
While Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar have been more or less peaceful during the campaign period, sporadic incidents of violence were reported in Cooch Behar, which shares its borders in its west with Bangladesh.
The longstanding rivalry between Pramanik and TMC’s Dinhata MLA and North Bengal Development minister Udayan Guha seems to have contributed to the palpable tension in Cooch Behar over the elections.
In view of the death of four persons in a firing allegedly by CISF personnel at a booth in Sitalkuchi during the 2021 assembly polls, the Election Commission has decided not to deploy any personnel of that force there.
The Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) or the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel will be deployed there for the April 19 polls, an EC official has said.
At least 112 companies of central forces and 4,500 state police will be deployed in Cooch Behar, which is almost double compared to the forces deployed in the other two districts, he said.
The poll panel has decided to deploy 2,454 state police personnel alongside 63 companies of central forces in Alipurduar, he said.
There will be 75 companies of central forces and 3,077 state police in Jalpaiguri, the official added.
In the first phase, a total of 56,26,108 voters – 28,62,494 men, 27,63,506 women and 108 third-gender – are eligible to exercise their franchise in 5,814 booths.
