Kolkata: Since 2011, when the erstwhile minority-dominated Garden Reach assembly constituency in the southern outskirts of Kolkata was renamed Kolkata Port, voting has been one-sided in favour of the Trinamool Congress.
In all three assembly elections since 2011, West Bengal Municipal Affairs & Urban Development Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad (Bobby) Hakim has won from the constituency with heavy margins, securing over 50 per cent of the vote share each time.
Traditionally, whether in the current Kolkata Port or the erstwhile Garden Reach, dock mafias and their musclemen determined voting trends to a great extent.
Before 2011, during the Garden Reach phase, power frequently shifted between CPI(M) and Congress, even during the 34-year-long Left Front regime.
Veteran political observers note that between 1952 and 2011, the dock mafias never had fixed political alliances. Their affiliations shifted from election to election depending on ground-level requirements, resulting in frequent changes of power.
“Since 2011, political allegiance has become constant, and election results have been virtually one-sided in Kolkata Port,” said a city-based political observer.
As per the present ground scenario, Hakim, the Trinamool candidate again this time, is ahead of his opponents, with all eight councillors of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in the constituency belonging to the ruling party.
The real contest, however, is between Trinamool and CPI(M). The BJP, which has yet to announce its candidate, is effectively out of the race. CPI(M) has fielded its former councillor, Faiyaz Khan, who continues to enjoy popularity among a substantial section of voters in this minority-dominated constituency.
Two factors could inconvenience Hakim and the Trinamool this time.
The first is the collapse of an under-construction building in the locality on the night of March 17, 2024, which killed nine persons, including two women, all from the Muslim community. CPI(M) candidate Khan has highlighted this tragedy against Hakim.
Hakim and some of his councillors faced criticism for allegedly encouraging mushrooming illegal constructions in violation of building rules, turning the area into a “death trap.”
The second factor is the deletion of a large percentage of voters in Kolkata Port in the final voters’ list published on February 28, following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The constituency has already witnessed 22.3 per cent deletions, with many more names under judicial adjudication after being categorised under “logical discrepancy.”
(IANS)
