In SIR times, parties opt for veterans in Kol seats

Kolkata: Amid SIR uncertainty, parties have put their faith in the hands of trusted old hands for the 2026 assembly elections.

The prominence of this move lies in the candidature list announced by Trinamool Congress (TMC), Left Front and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the assembly seats within city limits like Jorasanko, Rashbehari, Chowringhee, Cossipore-Belgachia and Kolkata Port, amongst other constituencies. While TMC has announced all its candidates on Tuesday, BJP has just announced three in the assembly constituencies within the city and Left 17.

The strategy to rely on trusted old hands comes in handy in Jorasanko, where the SIR has shaved off 35% of its 1.9 lakh voters. TMC has fielded Vijay Upadhayay as its MLA face there. Though it's a first fight for Upadhyay in assembly election, his political stem with TMC goes way back. He is the KMC councillor for ward 20 (Muktaram Babu Street).


Even with 66,491 deletions, highest amongst assembly constituencies in the city, Trinamool candidate Upadhyay is undeterred. He would be relying on the harassment that the SIR has caused to the people of his constituency. "It will not be an issue in Jorasanko for us. People have been harassed so much during SIR that they have made up their mind to vote against the BJP," he said. His name as the candidate from Jorasanko came as a surprise to many. He replaces Vivek Gupta.

The Left has fielded Bharat Ram Tiwari and BJP is yet to announce a candidate in this constituency.

The second worst affected is Chowringhee, with a SIR cutting its 1.9 lakh voter base by 32% (62,695 deletions). TMC has fielded Nayna Bandopadhyay, Left has put forward Sanjoy Basu's name and BJP is yet to announce its candidate. Nayna won Chowringhee in 2021, securing 70,101 votes and with a vote share of 40.7%.

Cossipore-Belgachia, Ballygunge, Bidhannagar, Shyampukur, Kolkata Port, Manicktala and Rashbehari all witnessed over 20% of their voters being marked deleted. Though comparatively lower, Rajarhat-New Town, Tollygunge, Jadavpur and Bhawanipore will have over 40,000 fewer voters in their roll.

Both Atin Ghosh, TMC candidate from Cossipore-Belgachia, and Debabrata Majumdar from Jadavpur said they were least worried about deletion of names under SIR. What they are worried about is the names under adjudication, which is 4,000 for Cossipore-Belgachia and 5,000 for Jadavpur.

Ghosh is a prominent TMC politician serving as the MLA for the constituency since May 6, 2021. He is a seasoned KMC neta, having also served as its deputy mayor since 2018. Similarly, Debabrata Majumdar won the Jadavpur seat in 2021 and has been in charge of KMC's SWM dept since 2010. Against him, Left has fielded veteran neta and senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who is the outgoing Rajya Sabha MP, and served as mayor from 2005 to 2010.

Maniktala saw the deletion of a total of 50,589 names. Here, TMC has fielded Sreya Pande, daughter of Sadhan Pande and Supti Pande. Sadhan Pande had won the seat in 2021. Pande's demands are that not a single voter's name should be deleted. She said, "If the EC is claiming that it wants a fair poll, then it should mean that it has actually reviewed each and every mapped person who was there in 2002 and is already under adjudication. "

Similarly, for Entally, TMC has fielded Sandipan Saha, who is making his debut in assembly polls. Entally saw a total deletion of 46,424 voters.

(Inputs from Zeeshan Jawed and Saikat Ray)