Nandigram will witness the most interesting contest of the West Bengal election between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari but there are other constituencies too where the contests will be closely watched in the second phase of polling on April 1.
Voting would take place in 30 Assembly constituencies in the second phase in the districts of South 24Parganas, Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purba Medinipur.
The CPI-M has also put up a candidate in the high-stakes battle in Nandigram between Suvendu Adhikari and Mamata Banerjee. Minakshi Mukherjee is the joint candidate of Left-ISF-Congress in the fray.
Suvendu Adhikari played a key role in the TMC's 2007 anti-land acquisition protest in Nandigram as the ground-level strategist that contributed to the defeat to the Left government after over three decades.
Adhikari is the sitting MLA from Nandigram.
Two former police officers are engaged in an interesting contest in West Bengal's Debra assembly seat in the second phase of polling on April 1.
BJP has fielded former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh against Trinamool Congress's Humayun Kabir, also an ex-IPS officer.
Ghosh was seen to be close to Mamata Banerjee. She joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Kabir joined TMC ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls.
In the previous election, Debra was won by TMC candidate Selima Khatun who defeated CPM's Jahangir Karim Sk.
In Haldia, which houses a petrochemical complex, Tapasi Mondal is contesting from the BJP. CPI-M has fielded Kar Paik Mka and TMC has fielded Swapan Naskar.
Mondal had won the seat in the 2016 election as a CPI-M candidate and defeated TMC's Madhurima Mondal.
In the Sabang constituency in Paschim Medinipur, TMC candidate Manas Ranjan Bhunia is contesting against Amulya Maity of BJP and Harekrishna Maiti of SUCI (C). In the 2016 election, Bhunia had won the seat as a Congress candidate and defeated Nirmal Ghosh of TMC.
Bhunia was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a TMC candidate necessitating a by-poll in the constituency. In the bye-election in 2017, Bhunia's wife and TMC candidate Gita R won the seat.
In the Kharagpur Sadar constituency, the fight is between actor-turned-politician Hiranmoy Chattopadhyay of BJP and Pradip Sarkar.
Sarkar won the seat in a by-poll in 2019 after BJP's Dilip Ghosh vacated the seat following his election to the Lok Sabha.
Dilip Ghosh had won in 2016 assembly election defeating Gyan Singh of Congress.
Former cricketer Ashoke Dinda, who joined the BJP last month, is contesting from the Moyna constituency in Purba Medinipur. He is pitted against Sangram Kumar Dola of TMC. Dola defeated Mk Bhowmik of Congress in the last polls.
BJP candidate Tanmay Ghosh is contesting from Bishnupur constituency in Bankura against TMC's Archita Bid and Congress' Debu Chatterjee.
Tushar Kanti Battacharya, who won the seat in 2016, has joined TMC and is not contesting the election.
The second phase will also decide the fate of some other actors in the fray.They include Soham Chakraborty and Sayantika Banerjee contesting Chandipur and Bankura respectively as TMC candidates.
( With inputs from ANI )
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