West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with Trinamool Congress leaders on the final day of the Lok Sabha election campaign, in Kolkata on Thursday
| Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI
Campaigning for the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha election in West Bengal concluded on Thursday with leaders across political parties holding road shows in and around Kolkata.
Nine Lok Sabha constituencies located in Kolkata, its suburbs and the Sundarbans — Kolkata Dakshin, Kolkata Uttar, Dum Dum, Barasat, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Basirhat, Joynagar and Mathurapur — will go to the polls on June 1 for which canvassing ended at 6pm on Thursday.
Also read: These are the Lok Sabha constituencies and States going to polls in Phase 7
The highlight of the Trinamool Congress’s campaign was a 12km roadshow by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Trinamool chairperson went across the city on foot accompanied by party candidates and senior leaders. She addressed the crowds and told them that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not return to power. Abhishek Banerjee, the party’s general secretary, participated in two rallies from Maheshtala in the western fringes of the city.
For the BJP, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, the party’s State president Sukanta Majumdar and actor-turned-politician Mithun Chakraborty campaigned. Mr. Majumdar participated in two rallies in the city while Mr. Adhikari led two roadshows in Salt Lake and in south Kolkata. Mr. Chakraborty, too, held a rally in south Kolkata.
In the last leg of the election, 124 candidates are in the fray, the highest in a phase in Bengal, for the nine seats. The Kolkata Dakshin seat has 17 contenders, the highest, followed by Jadavpur (16). Fifteen candidates are contesting from the Basirhat and Kolkata Uttar Lok Sabha seats each.
A total of 1.63 crore voters — 83.19 lakh men, 80.20 lakh women and 538 from the third gender — are eligible to exercise their franchise across 17,470 polling stations in the State. The Election Commission of India has deployed 1,020 companies of Central Armed Police Forces in these constituencies, including 185 companies in Kolkata.
For the BJP, Prime Minister Modi was the star campaigner addressing 19 public meetings in the State besides holding a roadshow in the Kolkata Uttar constituency.
The Trinamool’s campaign centred around Ms. Banerjee who addressed more than 150 rallies and held road shows. Issues such as the violence in Sandeshkhali, denial of funds to the State by the Centre, allegations of corruption against the State’s ruling party, OBC reservation and inclusion of Muslims in the OBC list, remarks against Hindu Monks dominated the poll discourse in the State.
The day marked an end to a two-and-a-half-month-long election campaign in West Bengal. The Lok Sabha polls were announced on March 16 and 33 of the 42 seats in the State voted in the first six phases. The remaining seats are considered Trinamool strongholds that the party swept in 2019.