Constituency watch: Tough battle for sitting Trinamool MP from Kolkata-Uttar to retain fort against former party loyalist

Kolkata: The contest in the Kolkata-Uttar Lok Sabha constituency which came into existence in 2009 after the orders of the Delimitation Commission will be interesting during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The sitting Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member, Sudip Bandopadhyay, is facing a tough challenge from one of his old party loyalists and six-time MLA Tapas Roy, who is contesting on behalf of the BJP.

Also in the fray is the former Congress Rajya Sabha member and veteran party leader Pradip Bhattacharya, who is contesting as the Left Front-supported Congress candidate.

The contest could have been another cakewalk for Bandopadhyay this time as well had Tapas Roy not filed his papers. However, the BJP fielding Roy against him had made things complicated for Bandopadhyay.

First, since the time tension between Bandopadhyay and Roy (then within Trinamool Congress) started surfacing, a number of ruling party leaders from Kolkata-Uttar publicly sympathised with Roy.

The outspoken Trinamool Congress General Secretary, Kunal Ghosh even then publicly accused Bandopadhyay of encouraging and nurturing factionalism within the party in Kolkata-Uttar. After Roy resigned from his membership of the Assembly and joined the BJP, Ghosh observed that had the leadership been serious the exit of Roy could have been prevented.

What made Roy’s joining BJP different from many others is that he had set a precedent of first resigning as a member of the Legislative Assembly as well as the general member of Trinamool Congress before officially joining the BJP even though his current term as an MLA was till 2026.

Roy had for quite some time been appealing to his own party leader not to neglect the issue of corruption and take disciplinary action against those indulging in corruption.

Second, barring a single-day ED operation at his residence in connection with the municipalities’ recruitment case, never ever has there been a single allegation of involvement in corruption in his long political career. Roy, who is always known for his humble lifestyle and amicable behaviour has claimed that the single-day ED operation at his residence was orchestrated by the leader of Trinamool Congress in Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandopadhyay.

While resigning from Trinamool Congress, Roy’s main grievance was that while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had been so vocal in supporting the accused mastermind, Sheikh Shahjahan, in the attack on ED and CAPF personnel in Sandeshkhali, she had never raised her voice over the ED operations at his residence.

Following the ED raids at his residence, several leaders from the opposition camps, including BJP, Congress and CPI(M) said that corruption links with him are simply not true.

As Roy still has major followers within the Trinamool Congress, a silent revolt within the ruling party in favour of Roy can go against Bandopadhyay.

After being nominated, Roy said that his joining the BJP was not with any expectation but with a case which is to fight against corruption which he was unable to do while being in Trinamool Congress.

“There is no doubt that BJP is coming to power again in the country with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister for the third consecutive term. If I am elected, I will raise the issues of grievances of the people of West Bengal on the floor of the Parliament,” Roy said.

On the other hand, Bandopadhyay has hinted that this will be the last electoral battle that he is fighting. “I want to quit electoral politics like Lionel Messi after winning,” Bandopadhyay has said.

Another advantage for Roy is that he is much younger than both Bandyopadhyay and Congress candidate, Pradip Bhattacharya. While Roy is 67, Bandopadhyay is 75 and Bhattacharya is nearing his eighties.