Asansol voters worry about closed factories, poor sanitation
The Statesman | 21 April 2026
In the high-profile Asansol North seat, TMC state labour minister Moloy Ghatak is contesting against his main rival Krishnendu Mukherjee of the BJP. A total of 13 candidates are in the fray, including two Independents bearing the same name as the BJP candidate ~ Krishnendu Mukherjee ~ as well as another similarly named candidate, Krishnendu Chatterjee.
This unusual situation recalls Sonar Kella (1974), the classic by Satyajit Ray, in which two characters share the same name, Dr Hazra, with one impersonating the other.
“I have never seen in my life three contestants with the same name fighting against each other in any seat. It shows that the TMC feels the seat is no longer safe and, in a desperate effort to cut votes, has fielded dummy Independent candidates with the same names,” claimed BJP leader Krishna Prasad.
Trinamul leader and MMiC, Gurudas Chatterjee, said the party has no knowledge of the Independent candidates, adding that anyone can contest in a democracy.
Although other parties are also contesting from the seat ~ Prasenjit Puitundi of the Congress and Akhilesh Kumar Singh of the CPI-M ~ the vote share of the remaining candidates is expected to be of academic interest, as the contest is likely to be bipolar.
The name Asansol is derived from two trees once found in abundance here ~ Asan and Sal. However, in this oldest industrial town of the country, green patches and water bodies have all but disappeared over the decades. The second-largest civic body in the state after Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Asansol has become a concrete-heavy urban sprawl, with rising pollution levels.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced plans to develop Asansol and Durgapur as mega cities during an election rally at Polo Ground. He pointed to the closure of Sen Raleigh Cycle Factory and Hindustan Pilkington Glass Factory, blaming both the Left Front and the TMC regime for the region’s decline, once compared to Germany’s Ruhr industrial belt.
Asansol was once a magnet for professionals from across India and abroad, with doctors, engineers, architects and teachers settling here before and after Independence, giving the town a cosmopolitan character. Today, residents complain of dwindling job opportunities and limited recreational spaces. Once-posh localities such as Apcar Garden, Hindustan Park and Hill View Park have gradually aged, with many homes now occupied largely by elderly residents.
Factory sirens have long fallen silent, and the only smoke visible now often comes from illegal brick kilns, said resident Romen Majumdar, speaking near the British Oxygen colony. Some real estate development has taken place, but much of the recent growth has been driven by the housing sector.
“It is a very poor strategy by the TMC to field so many dummy Independent candidates with my name, which shows how worried they are. We will rebuild Asansol if we come to power,” said Krishnendu Mukherjee.
Key issues in the constituency include unemployment, encroachment, illegal diversion of the Garui river, poor sanitation leading to flooding during the monsoon, pollution from railway sidings and waterlogging in underpasses.
Moloy Ghatak countered that over the past 15 years the TMC government has established a district headquarters in Asansol, along with Yuva Awas, Kazi Nazrul University, a CBI court, district court, commercial court and the Asansol Durgapur Police Commissionerate headquarters.
“Instead, we have prepared a land-use map of closed factories and are trying to set up industries there, but the Centre is not cooperating so far,” Ghatak said.
Around 50,000 minority votes have traditionally influenced the outcome. However, following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), 71,151 names have been deleted from the rolls. The remaining 237,050 voters will determine the outcome in the Asansol North Assembly seat, where Moloy Ghatak is seeking a fourth consecutive victory, though he appears to be facing the toughest challenge of his political career.