Retaining Darjeeling, Raigunj and Balurghat in the saffron fold will not be a cakewalk for the BJP MPs and a new nominee presently representing one of these constituencies. The saffron camp representatives are only too aware that the last five years has been a history of complacency leading to overlooking the organisational weaknesses and unfulfilled aspirations of the voters.

And come elections, the Opposition read TMC and INDIA coalition representatives be it Congress or a Left Front constituent are going hammer and tongs at the saffron camp on these issues. To cut a long story short, the saffron citadel is under assault and it's defenders are hard put to do their job in the second phase of elections.

But one would be losing focus to say that the BJP's 2019 poll victories were flukes. Nor are Raju Bista, Sukanta Majumdar and Kartik Chandra Pal the three BJP nominees representing BJP at Darjeeling, Balurghat and Raigunj respectively in this election be considered sitting ducks.

After all, the trio represent the ruling party at the Centre. Moreover, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, inarguably the two most charismatic campaigners have campaigned in the areas where the people will exercise their franchise in the second phase of elections

With their fingers on the local party's pulse, both the seasoned campaigners have become aware that all is not well with it. Hence the frequency of the duo's whirlwind visits lest even one constituency slips into the TMC bag..

Focusing on Balurghat, even if BJP nominee Sukanta Majumdar won at the 2019 elections, it assumed political significance only after the victorious academic replaced Dilip Ghosh as state BJP chief. The saffron camp would lose face if its Balurghat candidate is defeated while his victory will send a message the other way around.

Majumdar has cause for concern as saffron camp nominees trailed in several Assembly segments in 2021assembly elections raising the odds against the chances of state BJP chief winning this time. Truth to tell, the BJP MP not having nursed his constituency assiduously during the past five years, he faces the voters with a handicap.

The voters of this erstwhile RSP turned TMC stronghold supported Majumdar, an unknown political entity five years ago. One would not be economical with truth if it is contended that his victory owes much to the Modi-wave sweeping the country in 2019. It is not so five years later. And now Majumdar has to bend over backwards to seek the voters' nod even as he faces his political rivals.

State Cabinet minister and TMC nominee, Biplab Mitra takes on Majumdar at Balurghat. The other political rival the state BJP chief faces is RSP nominee for INDIA coalition, Joydeep Siddhanta. To emerge victorious, Mitra is banking on doubling of the amount of Lakshmir Bhandar as well as the other social security schemes of the state government. Peopled by tribals and a minority populace, apparently it will be an open electoral battle between TMC and BJP, while a second electoral triumph for Majumdar will be a significant milestone in his political career.

Representing Darjeeling for BJP in the Lok Sabha since 2019, Raju Bista may very well be ruing that he is from the national capital. He has already felt some ground below his feet slipping after his party's Kurseong MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma sought that a son of the soil be fielded from Darjeeling, come 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Such claims from the sitting MP's own party ranks have not cemented his own support base at what was once toasted as the " Queen of the Hills" though Darjeeling now rests on its long past glory days. In the backdrop of Gorkhaland agitation, candidates seeking to win from Darjeeling has to speak in support of a separate state of Gorkhaland.

The statehood issue is wrapped in a mixture of untruth, half truths and mist of misinformation. Successive elections have witnessed BJP nominees harping on this issue and gain thumping victories. But it has been lip service at its best as the saffron leadership is yet to initiate a follow-up action to its separate state promise. Of late, amidst a busy poll campaign in north Bengal, Union home minister Amit Shah has made it clear that creation of a separate state it of West Bengal is not among the saffron camp's options.

The Gorkha populace who had voted one and all for the cause of a separate state on previous elections does not conceal it's disappointment towards the BJP. To capitalise on this disappointment, Congress has fielded a son of the soil, Manish Tamang, an academic in Darjeeling Lok Sabha.

Several Gorkha factions like BGPM have lent their support to the Congress nominee. It remains to be seen whether Tamang emerges to be a scene stealer cutting into Bista's votes and bring about a shock victory for Gopal Lama, a TMC nominee.

Backed by several Gorkha Territorial Administration(GTA) functionaries and Humri Party, Lama seeks to reap the dividends of the social security schemes of the TMC state government. In these is included Chai Sundari, a project in this tea belt giving a critical edge to the TMC nominee. But big battalions of the Darjeeling hills are on the side of the BJP candidate, Bista. Incidentally, Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) have supported the BJP for the past 15 years but Gorkhaland has turned out to be elusive.

Call it a quirk of fate of a shift in political fortunes, Raigunj, a longtime Congress bastion once represented by Maya Ray and Priya Ranjan Das Munshi has in this election a Congress nominee who had once been a Forward Bloc legislator. Things get curiouser and curiouser when this turncoat has Left Front's support as he represents the anti-BJP INDIA bloc in this Lok Sabha.

Truth to tell, there are defectors galore in Raigunj constituency in this election as Krishna Kalyani, the TMC nominee has switched loyalty from the saffron camp. Kartik Chandra Pal is the BJP nominee in the poll fray.

But election campaigning is no smooth sailing for Kalyani though a BJP nominee has emerged victorious in the previous election. A fallout of intra- party squabbles, the shunting of Debasree Choudhury, the previous poll's winner and a member of Union Cabinet have ruffled a lot feathers of the party rank and file.

Small wonder, political observers tend to view the contest between the "depleted enthusiasm" of the TMC rank and file to campaign for Kalyani a former BJP legislator with that of saffron camp activists for who has replaced Choudhury. The situation brings out a commonality between the two sets of ideologically divergent activists making them "unenthusiastic campaigners."

In the emergent situation, Congress-LEFT nominee is set to give both Kalyani and Pal a run for their money, come April 26 especially as this is a minority population dominated constituency. Moreover, both Congress and Left votes will be pooled in his favour.

The shifting of proposed All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Raigunj to Kalyani is a sore point with the local voters lacking a top grade medication centre. The absence of a flyover in a booming town fraught with traffic snarls is another poll issue. Kalyani is banking on the state government's social security schemes. Pal's political fate will be decided by the groundwork by his predecessor Choudhury.

With Congress and Left underscoring the polarisation factor by fielding Ramz, the INDIA nominee may turn out to be surprise winner. On the other hand, shunting of Choudhury has put the new BJP candidate on a sticky wicket while position of the TMC nominee is unenviable owing to his past political baggage in the saffron camp and listless followers. (IPA Service)