Organisational strength and support of the people have almost ensured a hat trick for the Trinamul Congress candidate in Chandannagore Assembly seat.
Three of the political parties have retained their candidates who fought in 2021 Assembly election.
Trinamul Congress has fielded Indranil Sen, state information and cultural affairs minister while BJP has fielded Deepanjan Guha and CPI-M Gautam Sarkar.
In the 2021 Assembly election, Sen had secured 86,778 votes (47.63 per cent), Guha got 55,789 votes (30.60 per cent) and Sarkar got 33,702 votes (18.80 per cent). Sen defeated his nearest rival, BJP contender by over 31,000 votes.
There are 33 wards under Chandannagore Municipal Corporation. It is public knowledge that the Mayor of Chandannagore Municipal Corporation, Ram Chakraborty is not on good terms with Mr Sen. Munna Agarwal, who is the deputy Mayor, is close to Mr Sen.
There is resentment over the distribution of stalls in the light hub which was proposed by Miss Mamata Banerjee. It was seen that despite her caution in many areas, the narrow selfish interest of the leaders has become more important than serving the people. Singer-politician Mr Sen is popular among the electorate and wherever he goes to campaign, he gets requests to sing songs by the voters.
Chandannagore Municipal Corporation has done commendable job in keeping the city clean along with improvement in infrastructure. The garbage collection has been working smoothly and the roads have been properly illuminated. The district town has witnessed the inauguration of new garment and jewellery shops and eateries over the past five years.
The BJP has seen massive infighting which became palpable when Mr Guha had visited the Jagatdhatri temple. The saffron party is in no position to make up 17 rival votes to help the candidate win the election.
There is massive erosion of votes in the CPI-M, as the Left Front voters transferred the votes to BJP from 2016. If the CPI-M got back its votes, it will benefit the Trinamul Congress.
Chandannagore is a heritage city and was a French colony for decades. There is also a French Institute in the city. The city was a hotbed of revolutionary movement and Chandannagore Government College is the only educational institution, which was closed for 23 years because of the involvement of a section of the students with the revolutionary movement. Sri Aurobindo went to Chandannagore and stayed there briefly after being released from the jail for his involvement in the Alipore Bomb case.
Kanailal Dutta, one of the accused in the murder of Narendra Goswami had hailed from Chandannagore. Radhanath Sikdar, who had measured the height of Mount Everest had spent his last days in the city.
Over the years, the band stand has been decorated and people from across the state visits the town to see the heritage structures.