The West Bengal assembly polls are just around the corner, with voting scheduled for two phases on April 23 and 29. The battle for the chief minister's seat will largely be between the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and All India Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Nandigram remains a key political battleground, represented by two-time MLA Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP. The TMC has fielded Pabitra Kar against Adhikari, who secured nearly 49 percent of the votes in the 2021 assembly elections.
Bhabanipur has been a stronghold of the TMC since 2011, with Mamata representing the seat multiple times as MLA. The BJP has pitched Adhikari against her after he defeated her in 2021 at Nandigram.
Murshidabad is one of the few constituencies in West Bengal where the Indian National Congress continues to retain a significant presence. Shaoni Singha Roy won this seat in both 2011 and 2016 on a Congress ticket, but the Congress lost the constituency in the last assembly election.
Jadavpur has long been a Left stronghold, with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) dominating the seat from 1967 to 2006. The TMC broke this stronghold in 2011, but the Left managed a comeback in 2016.
Kharagpur Sadar will witness a high-profile contest between Dilip Ghosh of the BJP and Pradeep Sarkar of the TMC. The seat remains open-ended, but Ghosh may hold a slight edge, given his growing popularity and his tenure as BJP's West Bengal state president from 2015 to 2021.
