Among the key candidates are the TMC’s Rachana Banerjee and the BJP’s Locket Chatterjee in Hooghly, the TMC’s Partha Bhowmick and the BJP’s Arjun Singh in Barrackpore, the BJP’s Rathin Chakraborty and TMC’s Prasoon Banerjee in Howrah and the TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee in Serampore. Bangaon, a constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes, has the highest number of candidates at 15, while Arambagh (also SC-reserved) has the lowest at 10.
In Bangaon, sitting BJP MP and Union minister Santanu Thakur is taking on the TMC’s Biswajit Das, who was a BJP MLA. The fight is important considering the fact that the BJP has implemented the Citizenship Amendment Act promising to give citizenship to thousands of Matuas residing in the constituency. The BJP passed the Bill in 2019 and implemented it in 2024 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Whether the CAA will pay the BJP electoral dividends remains to be seen.
Another high-profile seat is Barrackpore, where the TMC candidate is a minister (MLA for the Naihati segment under the constituency) and the BJP nominee, Arjun Singh, is the sitting MP. Singh has been an MLA three times and has switched sides.
Hooghly will see a fight between two actor-turned-politicians—the TMC’s Didi No 1 fame Rachana Banerjee and sitting BJP MP Locket Chatterjee. While Chatterjee has been in active politics for the last 10 years, Banerjee is making her debut. This constituency is particularly important for the TMC because the rise of Mamata Banarjee began in 2006 from here. Singur, where Tata was supposed to set up a plant and TMC opposed it leading to the downfall of the Left government, falls under the constituency. As the BJP is trying hard to increase its tally from 18 in 2019 to more than 28, the other seats are also crucial.
After sporadic violence was reported during the fourth phase, the Election Commision has increased the deployment of central forces in the fifth phase. As many as 57.19 per cent of the booths in this phase have been identified as sensitive. It is substantially higher than 23.5 per cent in the fourth phase of elections.
As many as 650 companies of central forces will be deployed along with 567 quick-response teams and 25,590 police personnel. As per sources, the maximum number of security personnel will be deployed in Hooghly—181 companies of central forces and 166 quick-response teams.
There are 13,481 polling centres in the fifth phase. As many as 7,711 of the polling centres have been identified as sensitive. Most of the sensitive booths are in Hooghly—1,787 out of 2,048. In Arambagh 1,770 of the 2,078 polling centres are sensitive. The numbers for the other seats are 1069 out of 1591 polling stations in Barrackpore; 1,236 out of 2,076 in Serampore; 694 out of 1,863 in Uluberia; 605 out of 1,895 in Howrah; and 550 out of 1,930 in Bangaon.
The first four rounds of the Lok Sabha elections were held on April 19, 26, May 7 and 13. Voting for the last two phases will be conducted on May 25 and June 1.
Voting will begin at 7 am and end at 6 pm.
Constituencies Candidates
Bangaon- 15
Barrackpore- 14
Howrah- 14
Uluberia- 12
Sreerampur- 11
Hooghly- 12
Arambagh- 10
Constituencies Polling stations Voters
Bangaon (SC)- 1,930 18,36,374
Barrackpore- 1,591 15,08,728
Howrah- 1,895 17,69,184
Uluberia- 1863 17,41,438
Sreerampore- 2,076 19,26,645
Hooghly- 2,048 18,58,067
Arambagh- 2,078 18,83,266
Total-13,481 1,25,23,702
Critical polling stations
Bangaon- 550
Barrackpore- 1,069
Howrah- 605
Uluberia- 694
Serampore- 1,236
Hooghly- 1,787
Arambagh- 1,770
Total- 13,481. 7,711
Companies of central forces and state police personnel
Barasat police district- 20
Barrackpore PD- 56 2,908
Basirhat PD- 17 695
Bangaon PD- 49 1,947
Chandannagar- 60 2,842
Hooghly Rural- 171 6,247
Howrah PC- 80 3,957
Howrah Rural- 110 4,227
Paschim Medinipur- 23 751
Ranaghat PD- 27 1079
Total- 613 25,590