TMC got leads in 26 of Kolkata's 28 assembly seats in Kolkata
Times of India | 6 June 2024
KOLKATA: In almost a repeat of 2021, Trinamool Congress has managed to get leads in 26 out of 28 assembly segments in and around Kolkata this election season, auguring well for the party in the assembly polls that will take place in two years. The assembly segments are spread over Kolkata South, Kolkata North, Jadavpur and Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituencies.
However, there remain a few areas of concern. In Kolkata North, the party trailed by 1,599 votes at Shyampukur - from where state cabinet minister Shashi Panja was elected with a margin of 22,550 votes in 2021.
The party will be worried over Jorasanko too - a seat where BJP traditionally enjoys popularity. Trinamool's Sudip Bandyopadhyay trailed BJP by 7,401 votes here. Trinamool's Vivek Gupta had won this seat in 2021, defeating BJP's Meena Devi Purohit by 12,743 votes.
Bandyopadhyay's biggest lead (45,802) was secured from Beliaghata. While a lead of 3,575 votes from Maniktala will help the party keep its faith here, they will ideally like to increase the gap when Maniktala goes for assembly bypolls in the next few months.
"The booth level results are arriving and we are analyzing how we can perform even better. Wherever we have faltered, the brass will instruct us accordingly," said Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh.
In south Kolkata, Trinamool led in Rashbehari by 1,691 votes. In Bhowanipore, the lead was 8,297. However, it is here in five wards - 63, 70, 71, 72 and 74 - that the party has trailed BJP.
"A section of non-Bengali voters thought this to be the vote for Delhi and voted accordingly. We will review the results in detail," said Rashbehari MLA Debasish Kumar.
In Jadavpur, Trinamool led from all seven assembly seats. More importantly, the party wrested Bhangar from ISF and took a lead of 82,000 from here. The lead in urban Tollygunge (20,000 plus) is as impressive as Baruipur North (47,000 plus). The only area poll managers wish to improve is Sonarpur south. The lead here is less than 10,000.
Like Jadavpur, Trinamool has led in all seven assembly segments in the Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency. However, its lead in Rajarhat-Gopalpur is wafer thin - a mere 74 votes. While the lead in Dum Dum Uttar is 6,000, the lead in the main Dum Dum constituency is around 10,000.
Trinamool has secured a lead in Baranagar. Sayantika Banerjee won the assembly bypolls by 8,148 votes. However, in the Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool's lead here is 11,547. This shows that essentially it might not always be right to extrapolate data from Lok Sabha polls to assembly polls as issues differ.