Heated Campaign For First Phase Of Bengal Polls Ends, Voting On April 23

The high-pitched campaign for the first phase of the West Bengal assembly elections came to an end on Tuesday as issues ranging from food habits, cross-border infiltration and a uniform civil code to the contentiously revised electoral rolls dominated the discourse.

The two big rivals, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), made a bunch of promises to woo the electorate ahead of voting in 152 constituencies across north Bengal and several districts in the southern part of the state on April 23. Nearly 3.60 crore electors are eligible to vote in this phase, including 1.84 crore men, 1.75 crore women and 465 third-gender voters, according to Election Commission data.

Canvassing for the BJP candidates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and several other leaders alleged that the state has witnessed political violence, lawlessness and widespread corruption as, they claimed, the ruling TMC encouraged infiltration for vote bank politics, leading to demographic change.

Addressing his final rally on Tuesday, Shah predicted that the state was in for a change of leadership on May 4.

"Her time at the helm of the state has come to an end," he said, referring to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Urging people to vote without fear, he said, "No one can threaten our voters. The Election Commission has deployed central forces in sufficient numbers who are spread at every nook and corner of the state." Around 2,450 companies of central paramilitary forces that comprise nearly 2.5 lakh personnel have been deployed by the Election Commission for the polls. The poll panel has stepped up security arrangements, identifying more than 8,000 polling stations as highly sensitive for the first phase.

"Bhaipo (nephew) will not be Bengal's future CM. He has already purchased his ticket to leave the state after May 4," Shah said.

Hitting out at the BJP, Abhishek Banerjee said the party had a long track record of making "false promises", as it did not fulfil its pledge of "Rs 15 lakh in every bank account and two crore jobs annually".

"Those who could not deliver on basic promises cannot be trusted to provide welfare benefits," Banerjee said.

He also challenged BJP-ruled states to replicate West Bengal's direct benefit schemes.

"There are 16 states ruled by the BJP. If even one of them can implement a scheme like 'Lakshmir Bhandar' for all women without discrimination, I will never come to ask for votes again," the senior TMC leader asserted.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her party would return to power comfortably in the state and claimed that the BJP-led government at the Centre would not last beyond 2026.

She criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for saying in a recent rally that he was the BJP candidate in all 294 seats going to the polls in West Bengal.

"You have to quit the post of the prime minister first for that to happen," she said.

"The BJP will not win the elections in West Bengal this time. The Trinamool Congress will again form the government. We will also throw out the BJP from Delhi in 2026 itself," Banerjee asserted.

The TMC is seeking to come to power for the fourth straight term, while the BJP wants to unseat the Mamata Banerjee-led party in the state where the number of voters has reduced by around 91 lakh after the Special Intensive Review (SIR).

Key candidates in this phase include leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari (BJP, Nandigram), former Union minister Nisith Pramanik (BJP, Mathabhanga), state minister Udayan Guha (TMC, Dinhata), Goutam Deb (TMC, Siliguri), and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress, Baharampur).

The BJP has promised, among others, to implement the Uniform Civil Code, stop infiltration, strengthen borders, generate jobs, provide pending DA to state government employees, and give more financial assistance to beneficiaries than what they are getting now.

The TMC has accused the BJP of trying to manipulate the voter list through the SIR, targeting candidates and ruling party leaders using central agencies.

It also claimed that the BJP would ban the consumption of fish, meat and eggs if it won the polls, a charge vehemently denied by the latter.

The ruling party also pledged a pucca house to every family, piped drinking water for all, increased financial assistance to beneficiaries, support to landless farmers, and others.

Among other issues, the decades-old demand of the Gorkhas for Gorkhaland, tea garden workers' wages, infrastructure gaps in north Bengal and agrarian distress in Malda and Murshidabad have shaped the campaign narrative.

Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi also campaigned for party candidates; the party is seen as a marginal player in the state though.

The gherao of judicial officers engaged in the SIR exercise in Malda's Mothabari also became a major issue during the campaign. Several people protesting the deletion of names in the exercise had gheraoed the officers for several hours, leading to the EC engaging the NIA to probe the matter on the Supreme Court's directive.

The presence of several high-profile candidates adds spice to the first phase. In Nandigram, leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari is taking on his former aide Prabitra Kar, who shifted to the TMC recently. Adhikari, who is also contesting from the Bhawanipur constituency against TMC chief Banerjee, had defeated the CM from Nandigram in the 2021 elections.

Suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir, who has come to the limelight after promising to build a Babri Masjid-like mosque in Murshidabad district, is also a contestant.

The BJP-held Baharampur seat is also drawing attention, with senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury making a return to assembly politics after over two decades.

Among the other prominent candidates contesting in the first phase is former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh against the TMC's Pradeep Sarkar from the Kharagpur Sadar seat in Paschim Medinipur district.

Other key seats in the first phase include Mekhliganj, Sitalkuchi, Darjeeling, Raiganj, Islampur, Balurghat, English Bazar and Jangipur.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)