Bengal Assembly election 2021: Nandigram among 30 seats to vote in Phase 2; full list of constituencies, key candidates in fray

Polling for the second phase of West Bengal Assembly polls will be held today (1 April, Thursday) for 30 constituencies across four districts — Purba Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and South 24 Parganas. There are a total of 171 candidates in the fray for the 30 seats, including West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee who is up against TMC turncoat and now BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram.

Adhikari left TMC and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in December last year. This is a battle of prestige for both the contestants.

Here’s the full list of constituencies that will go to polls in phase 2 of West Bengal Assembly polls:

1) Purba Medinipur: 9 seats

Tamluk, Panskura Purba, Panskura Paschim, Moyna, Nandakumar, Mahisadal, Haldia, Nandigram and Chandipur

2) Paschim Medinipur: 9 seats

Kharagpur Sadar, Narayangarh, Sabang, Pingla, Debra, Daspur, Ghatal, Chandrakona and Keshpur

3) Bankura: 8 seats

Taldangra, Bankura, Barjora, Onda, Bishnupur, Katulpur, Indas and Sonamukhi

4) South 24 Parganas: 4 seats

Gosaba, Patharpratima, Kakdwip and Sagar

West Bengal recorded a high voter turnout of nearly 80 percent in the first phase of elections which was held on 27 March.

The results of the election will be declared on 2 May.

Key candidates

Of the total candidates in the fray, only 19 (or 11 percent) are women while the remaining 152 candidates are men.

Among the candidates, 43 (25 percent) have declared criminal cases against themselves. Of these, 17 are from the BJP, eight from TMC, seven from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), three from the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), two each from Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party, and one from the Communist Party of India.

A total of 36 candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. As many as 11 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women.

Prominent candidates from the BJP include ministers Suvendu Adhikari, Bharati Ghosh (Debra), Babul Supriyo (Tollygunj), Ashok Dinda (Moyna), Nilanjan Adhikari (Nandakumar). From the ruling party, the candidates to look out for include Mamata, actor Sayantika Banerjee (Bankura) and Humayun Kabir (Debra).