Kharagpur Sadar's Poll Battle: Ghosh vs Sarkar in Key Bengal Contest

With an estimated total population of 4 lakh with nearly 1.9 lakh voters, Kharagpur Sadar hopes to find a candidate who can help with solving the persistent problem of pollution, water crisis and youth unemployment.

Assembly constituency number 224 is composed of the Kharagpur Railway settlement, Kharagpur I community development block, and Kharagpur municipality. The people have been hoping to get a leader who might ensure the continuation of developmental works in the area.

Home to Kharagpur junction, India's fourth-longest railway platform, over a 1000 meters long, the city itself also has IIT Kharagpur, the biggest and oldest technology institute in the country.

However, despite such infrastructure, the locals have said many development works have stalled, with no proper coordination between agencies and different politicians to complete any of it. Some locals have said that it is important to have the MLA be of the same party, which is at Centre, saying that it would help in the smooth completion of projects.

Apart from projects, locals have also said that several sponge iron factories near the area are affecting the entire region. This has been a major problem, according to locals. While the people have no objections to the factories continuing their operations, there has been strong and consistent demand for the control and prevention of pollution in the town.

The constituency, having been a railway junction, hosts a variety of people from across the country, including Telegu, Marathi and Tamil speakers nearly outnumbering local Bengalis.

Dilip Ghosh, having lost his 2024 Lok Sabha bid, is looking at making inroads again by hoping to repeat his 2016 performance, where he had managed to break the streak of 7-time Congress MLA Gyan Singh Sohanpal.

Ghosh had left the MLA seat following his election to the Lok Sabha in 2019. Following a bypoll, it was the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) candidate Pradip Sarkar who managed to get a win against BJP's Prem Chandra Jha. However, the win lasted only till 2021, when BJP's Hiramoy Chattopadhyay managed to wrest the seat back to the party. Chattopadhyay is now contesting from the Shyampur constituency.

Congress has also fielded Papiya Chakraborty.

Since 2011, the seat has swung from Congress to BJP, to TMC, and then back to BJP. Every winner, irrespective of party has won the seat by getting more than 70,000 votes, save for Dilip Ghosh, who won with more than 61 thousand votes.

However, 44,000 votes in the constituency have been deleted due to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), making it uncertain on how the public might vote.

With a strong developmental push, the Central government has continued work at the railway station which serves as almost a lifeline for the locals under the Amrit Bharat scheme. A Rs 2905 crore has also been approved by the Union cabinet to develop the Santragachi Kharagpur 4th Line. Additionally, a 6 lane highway form Kharagpur has also been planned.

Ghosh has declared a personal income of Rs 13,46,880 between 2024-2025. Meanwhile Pradip Sarkar declared an income of Rs 6,81,040.

The upcoming elections follow the 2021 battle, where the TMC secured a landslide 213 seats. However, the BJP's growth from a minor player to 77 seats in the last cycle has set the stage for the current high-stakes confrontation.

West Bengal is set for two phases of assembly polls on April 23 and 29, with the results set for May 4.

- ANI