West Bengal Polls: TMC poll managers go back to drawing board

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress workers in Bhowanipore went back to the drawing board on Tuesday after they realised that almost 10,000 out of the 14,000-plus voters under adjudication in this closely watched constituency in Bengal — where CM Mamata Banerjee is contesting against BJP's Suvendu Adhikari — were reinstated on the electoral list as eligible voters on Tuesday.

Prior to SIR, the constituency had 2,06,295 voters. The first round of deletion saw 44,786 names removed. The second revision saw another 2,342 names removed and 18 new voters added but put 14,154 names under adjudication, of whom, party sources said, close to 10,000 were declared eligible voters by the judicial officers.


"The maths was getting extremely complicated with the uncertainty over the number of voters still under adjudication. This constituency has already lost a number of valid voters but thankfully, 73% of those who were under adjudication have been accepted back in the system. So now we have a clear idea of the electorate and will plan our campaign accordingly," said a Trinamool councillor in Bhowanipore.

Another councillor in whose ward more than 500 voters out of 775 under adjudication were reinstated said they will collect documents from the 270-odd voters who were left out and submit fresh applications to the tribunal over the next two days.

"In the past 48 hours, I have personally handled 44 applications and sent them to the tribunal. The work will continue till Thursday," said the councillor.

The ward-level variations, however, remain stark. While minority-dominated Ward 77 saw nearly 79% of its adjudicated voters cleared, Ward 82 — overseen by mayor Firhad Hakim and another minority-predominant ward — recorded the highest exclusions, with over 600 of 1,020 voters declared ineligible.

The evolving voter composition has sharpened political calculations. Key wards such as 70 and 72, with a sizeable Gujarati electorate, have emerged as battlegrounds, with both Trinamool and BJP intensifying outreach among non-Bengali communities including Gujaratis, Sikhs, Marwaris and Biharis.

Suvendu Adhikari's entry into CM Mamata Banerjee's home turf has further heightened the contest. As the only leader to have defeated Banerjee in a post-2011 assembly election, he brings both symbolism and momentum to the BJP's campaign, which is banking on consolidating sections of the non-Bengali vote amid the churn.

For Banerjee, the stakes are equally high. Having represented Bhowanipore since 2011, she has set a target to achieve a victory margin exceeding 60,000 votes. Her previous wins reflect a fluctuating trajectory — from a margin of over 54,000 votes in the 2011 byelection to around 25,000 in 2016 against Congress's Deepa Dasmunshi.

This time, Trinamool has responded by deploying a tightly coordinated campaign structure, with senior functionaries — Firhad Hakim, Subrata Bakshi and Javed Khan — overseeing campaign operations across eight wards. But party insiders indicate a decisive pivot away from voter list arithmetic. "With the numbers settling, the focus is now back on street-level mobilisation," said a senior functionary. That shift will be on full display on Wednesday, when Banerjee hits the campaign trail with a major roadshow — her first since announcing her candidature — before filing her nomination later in the day.
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