Lok Sabha Polls: In Kolkata's 'Complex' Jadavpur Seat, BJP Fields Scholar-turned-politician Anirban Ganguly

Anirban Ganguly is the chairman and trustee of Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, which is the BJP’s New Delhi-based think tank. (Image: @anirbanganguly/X)

This candidate fielded by the BJP in urban south Kolkata’s Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency, has evoked the curiosity of many. Won by TMC’s actor-turned-politician Mimi Chakraborty last time, the saffron party has fielded scholar-turned-politician Anirban Ganguly, whose name was announced alongside 19 others from the state on Saturday (March 2).

A breakup of the seven assembly segments in Jadavpur and an analysis of its history – especially those who have won elections here and held the seat in the past, as well as its demography – will show how this constituency is a combination of the political complexities of Bengal.

Ganguly contested the West Bengal assembly election in 2021 as a BJP candidate from the Bolpur-Santiniketan constituency and came in second by polling more than 94,000 (40.89%). In the same polls in 2016, the BJP had won 19,000 votes.

A first-timer in the 2021 polls, his contest was against a candidate who is now a state cabinet minister. Like south Bengal, Birbhum district of which Bolpur is a part, is located on the western front of the state and is a TMC stronghold.

Ganguly lost by a margin of 22,000 votes to TMC’s Chandranath Sinha, but increased the BJP tally by at least 32 percent while the regional party lost its vote share by around 4.5 percent.

The chairman and trustee of the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation (SPMRF), which is a New Delhi-based think tank of the BJP, Ganguly is known as an author. He has written at least 10 books, including one on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his governance style as well as another on union home minister Amit Shah and his organisational politics.

Jadavpur and its complexities

Jadavpur counts among its previous MPs present chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Somnath Chatterjee, the late Lok Sabha speaker from the 1980s. The seat has witnessed tough contests, as it has continued to vote alternately, and has had MPs from the CPI(M), Congress and TMC in the last four decades. It is considered one of the most challenging Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Coming to its complexities, its composition must be considered. The Lok Sabha constituency comprises seven assembly segments – Baruipur Purba, Baruipur Paschim, Sonarpur Dakshin, Sonarpur Uttar, Bhangar, Jadavpur and Tollygunge.

Barring Jadavpur and Tollygunge, which come under south Kolkata proper, five assembly segments are a mix of rural and semi-urban areas. Bhangar, in fact, has been a political flash point with violent clashes in the past. Sonarpur and Baruipur segments are not much different.

Out of the seven assembly segments, the TMC has MLAs in six while the Indian Secular Front (ISF) won Bhangar in 2021. There is a dominance of Muslim votes in at least three of these seven segments.

After delimitation in 1977, Somnath Chatterjee won from the newly formed Jadavpur seat. He was a two-term MP there, until Mamata, who was then in the Congress, fought against all odds and won the seat in 1984. After 1989, the seat swung back to the CPI(M) for two terms and, in 1996, Krishna Bose won for two consecutive terms – once as a Congress MP and another from the TMC. In 2004, CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakraborty swept the seat but, since 2009, Jadavpur has voted for the TMC.

Since 1977, Jadavpur has voted for academicians barring twice – once in 1984, when the fiery Youth Congress leader Mamata won the seat and, in 2019, as Tollywood actor Mimi Chakraborty was fielded from the TMC and won. Last month, however, she resigned citing her “inability to work as a politician” and obstacles to work for the people. Another former MP, a senior academician-historian Sugata Bose, also expressed displeasure at several forums citing similar difficulties.