Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 18 : Three parliamentary constituencies--Coochbehar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri--in West Bengal, all of which are located in the northern part of the state and won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, are set to vote on Friday in the first phase of the General Elections.
One of the star candidates of the BJP, Nisith Pramanik, who holds the portfolio of the Union Minister of State for Home, is the most prominent candidate from West Bengal in the first phase.
The youngest Minister in the Narendra Modi government, who won the Coochbehar Lok Sabha seat reserved for the Scheduled Castes, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, has been repeated by the BJP from his constituency this time.
Pramanik has been pitted against the Trinamool Congress' (TMC) Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia. The Congress has fielded Piya Roy Chowdhury from the seat while the Forward Bloc has fielded Nitish Chandra Roy.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Pramanik won 48 per cent votes defeating TMC's Paresh Chandra Adhikari who won 44.4 per cent votes.
The Coochbehar Lok Sabha constituency comprises seven Assembly seats -- Mathabhanga, Cooch Behar Uttar, Cooch Behar Dakshin, Sitalkuchi, Sitai, Dinhata and Natabari. Only two of these constituencies are represented by TMC MLAs.
In Alipurduar, a Scheduled Tribes (ST) reserved seat, BJP's Manoj Tigga has been fielded against TMC's Prakash Chik Baraik.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP's John Barla won the seat defeating TMC's Dasrath Tirkey. While Barla got 54.4 per cent of votes, Tirkey secured 36.7 per cent votes.
In Jalpaiguri, BJP's sitting MP Jayanta Kumar Roy will be contesting against TMC's Nirmal Chandra Ray. Communist Party of India (Marxist) has also fielded Debraj Barman from Jalpaiguri.
In 2019, Jayanta Kumar Roy won the seat, defeating Trinamool's Bijoy Chandra Barman. While Roy got 50.6 per cent of votes, Barman got 38.4 per cent.
Polling in the 42 parliamentary constituencies in West Bengal will be held across all seven phases: April 19, April 26, May 4, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1. The counting of votes has been scheduled for June 4.
Though the TMC is part of the INDIA bloc, it does not have a seat-sharing arrangement with the other parties in the alliance, like Congress and the Left parties in the state.
"Three seats are going to poll tomorrow; Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduars. We will win on all three seats. In 2019, some voters got confused and voted for other candidates. But, this time there is a wave and we will win all seats," TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said speaking to ANI on Thursday.
Earlier this week, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a rally in Cooch Behar and urged the voters to remove the BJP from power to "protect the country's independence", adding that if the BJP wins that there will be no elections.
"I am clearly saying, remember, this election is not an ordinary election, all of India has understood today, you also understand, if you want to protect the freedom of the country, then remove BJP, save the country, remember, otherwise there will be no freedom in the country," she said at a rally in Cooch Behar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also held a public meeting in Cooch Behar earlier this month and attacked the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal for "protecting the accused" in the Sandeshkhali incidents that rocked the state.
He asserted that only BJP can stop atrocities against women, adding that the party has resolved to ensure punishment for the accused in the Sandeshkhali incidents.
In the 2019 elections, the BJP marked a strong improvement, taking its tally from 2 in 2014 to 18 against the TMC's 22. The Congress's tally dropped to just 2 seats, while the Left scored a blank.
The BJP, on the other hand, is aiming to make further inroads in the state after rising to the rank of main Opposition party in the state in the Assembly elections in 2021.