Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal shot into prominence in recent times largely with the rise of Abhishek Banerjee, nephew and heir apparent to Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee.
The seat has alternated between the Communists and the Congress since the first Lok Sabha election held here in 1952. But since 1967, it has been a CPI(M) fortress that the TMC breached in 2009 with Some Mitra as its candidate.
Nestled between Kolkata and the South 24 Parganas district, Diamond Harbour stands as a strategic stronghold for the Trinamool Congress. The stakes are high, with outcomes poised to influence both TMC's inner dynamics and West Bengal's politics at large in the days ahead.
In 2019, Abhishek defeated his closest contender from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by more than 3.2 lakh votes. While the winner got over 56 per cent of vote share, the runner-up collected around 33.4 percent.
The change in the state’s political fortune was reflected in this constituency, with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) candidate and a popular medical practitioner from Kolkata, Fuad Halim, ending with less than 94,000 votes (6.7 percent share).
Meanwhile, the Congress nominee could not muster even 20,000 votes (1.4 percent).
In the last Lok Sabha election, the constituency recorded a voter turnout of 14,09,002 or 81.96 per cent of its total number of 17,19,190 electors.
In 2024, the Congress is supporting CPI(M)’s Pratikur Rahaman against BJP nominee Abhijit (Bobby) Das and TMC candidate Abhishek Banerjee.
While six of the assembly segments of this Lok Sabha constituency are in South 24 Parganas district, one falls in Kolkata. All these seven seats were won by TMC in the 2021 assembly elections.
In the earlier Lok Sabha election of 2014, the debutant TMC leader won by a margin of more than 71,000 votes, garnering about 40.3 per cent share, that time over CPI(M)’s Abul Hasnat, who got about 34.7 per cent of the total mandate polled in the constituency.
With about 38 percent of the area’s population being Muslim, some political analysts see a division in anti-BJP votes, while others contend that the minority community usually votes en masse.
The party also projects the “effective implementation” of various welfare schemes as evidence of good governance.
However, the opposition parties cry foul, alleging intimidation, violence, and malpractice in the constituency, especially during polls.
Due to its location on the delta, British occupiers earlier used this as a major port. Diamond City today forms a popular tourist resort, with cruises, and spots like the remains of a Portuguese Fort, a lighthouse, Sharisha Ramakrishna Mission Ashram, various manuscripts and stone images of Lord Buddha, Lord Mahavir and Lord Vishnu.
The Lok Sabha constituency will go to polls on June 1 in the final phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024.
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