Report on Barrackpore parliamentary constituency in West Bengal

In our series of key constituencies for Lok Sabha polls, today we bring you a report on Barrackpore parliamentary constituency in West Bengal. Barrackpore parliamentary constituency consists of seven assembly segments. This constituency will go to poll on 20th May under the 5th phase of Lok Sabha election 24. The assembly segments are Amdanga, Bijpur, Naihati, Bhatpara, Jagatdal, Noapara and Barrackpore. There are fourteen candidates including seven independents in this seat. There were many jute, cotton and paper mills in this constituency and it was a vibrant industrial area. At present most of these mills are shut down and real estate has come on the factory premises in many places.

BJP’s sitting MP Arjun Singh has been given the ticket again. Trinamool Congress has fielded state minister Partha Bhowmick. Congress supported Left Front candidate is Debdut Ghosh.There are more than fifteen lakhs electors in Barrackpore constituency of which nearly seven lakhs forty thousand are women voters. The fight for this seat will be interesting as BJP’s Arjun Singh had left the party in the year 2022 and he had joined Trinamool Congress. He joined BJP again in March this year. He never resigned from his MP seat. Arjun Singh was associated with Trinamool for a long time and he was an MLA of the party. He joined BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha election and won the seat. Partha Bhowmick of Trinamool Congress is a minister of Mamata Banerjee led cabinet.

CPI (M)’s Debdut Ghosh is an actor and he is associated with the Bengali film industry. Trinamool had won all the assembly constituencies in the last Vidhan Sabha election except Bhatpara. Bhatpara was won by BJP. While BJP’s main issues are corruption of the ruling party and Sandeshkhali incident; Trinamool Congress is attacking BJP for neglecting West Bengal. Security arrangements will be tight with adequate central and state forces. All the booths will be webcasted on the voting day.