Politicians who represent a constituency over time establish a close bond with their constituents. For instance, Amethi and Rae Bareli developed a connection to the Gandhi family, which was why Smriti Irani's victory over Rahul Gandhi in 2019 was a headline event.
In Bengal, ex-Chief Minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray was elected as an MLA for the first time from Bhabanipur in 1957, a seat he held for a decade. He later also contested from Chowranghee and Maldaha, but Bhabanipur continued to be strongly linked to his name.
The current chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, also has a strong connection to the constituency, having won it thrice in a decade - in 2011, 2016, and 2021.
In addition, the Trinamool Congress leader was also a five-time MP from South Kolkata, which includes the Bhabanipur Assembly segment.
The two, combined, serves as Mamata Banerjee's historic political base.
But then, so is Nandigram. It is, in fact, the seat that catapulted her to power after she led vociferous protests against the then-ruling Left over land acquisition for an industrial project.
But there is a big gap in the economic profile of the two seats.
The aristocracy of South Kolkata is connected to the urban and multicultural Bhabanipur constituency. But Nandigram is a rural part of East Midnapore and farmers, economically disadvantaged communities, and underprivileged groups form a majority of its population.
Suvendu Adhikari - the former close aide of Mamata Banerjee, who jumped to the BJP in December 2020, months before the last Assembly election - has close ties to Nandigram.
He is from the Midnapore region and has developed the image of a rural political leader, an image that allowed him to win the seat for the Trinamool in 2016 and the BJP in 2021; the latter victory was a landmark defeat of Mamata Banerjee from the ideological seat of her power.
In the 2021 election, Adhikari won the Nandigram seat by a margin of 1,956 votes.
Nandigram has seen its share of political movements, particularly during the freedom struggle. This included the boycott of British goods in 1901, the Khilafat and non-cooperation movements in 1921, and the Tebhaga movement in 1946.
In recent years it has also witnessed migration, particularly from Bangladesh. As per 2011 Census, Hindus were 65.82 per cent of the population and Muslims 34.04 per cent.
The Bhabanipur seat is demographically more diverse and has a high proportion of non-Bengali voters. The electorate here is largely composed of non-Bengali communities, including people from Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Bihar. There are gurdwaras in the region as well, and the ones in Bhabanipur are rather old and have a large number of long-standing voters.
Mamata Banerjee visits these gurdwaras and also interacts with other non-Bengali groups.
As a result, cosmopolitan Bhabanipur has a very urban feel to it.
The crucial aspect of this situation is that an urban face plays a significant role in the pan-Bengal leadership that a chief minister provides.
When the CPM was in power, Congress used to receive more votes in Kolkata while the CPM dominated in rural areas. When Mamata Banerjee eventually came to power, she did so primarily thanks to the support of rural and subaltern voters.
However, the CPM had already progressively expanded its urban voting base, especially under Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The urban Kolkata vote bank was later won by Mamata Banerjee.
Changes in vote banks occur in this manner.
There are now two quite different kinds of constituencies between Nandigram and Bhabanipur.
Suvendu Adhikari is making a significant effort by standing from both seats; by defeating Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur, he is hoping to establish himself as a candidate for chief minister. Despite being primarily a rural political figure, he is attempting to project an urban image through media attention because an urban seat in Kolkata is much more visible. As a result, this trip from Nandigram to Bhabanipur turns into a new, intriguing political path.
