By Hasan Ali

Bengal entered its most crucial phase. Four phases were completed with several allegations and killings. There are two major rival groups, the BJP, and TMC (Mamta Banerjee) group, in West Bengals' election. The voters have decided the fate of candidates of both the parties in 135 of 294 seats. The remaining 159 will hold the polls between 17 April and 29.

As history knows, the TMC had strengthened its position in 2016 over 2011 when it had won 19 of these 30 seats. The BJP drew a blank here in 2016. However, it changed the election calculus in Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP was leading on 20 of the 30 seats that voted in the first phase.

The party leader and Prime Minister also played an active role in the West Bengal elections. The BJP currently controls a dozen of the country's 28 states, with alliance partners in several others. However, it has never won power in West Bengal, whose 90 million people make it the fourth most populous State. In the West, BJP faces Mamta Banerjee's opposition, which would be equally vociferous for West Bengal. The elections of Bengal become the most critical and unpredictable. In the Nandigram votes, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took a huge gamble by standing against a local heavyweight and her former aide Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP in December last year. There are some allegations by both sides for rigged the elections.

The hotline started when Mamta Banerjee was injured after being pushed against her car in Nandigram; after an hour, she filed nomination papers contest the election from the East Midnapore constituency. The TMC maintained its Campaign and struggle despite the BJP's massive challenge. Banerjee Claim that Home Minister Amit Shah stated in the Lebong area in Darjeeling that their will be no NRC. However, Mamta Banerjee pointed out that 14 lakh people have been identified and sent to detention camps based on finding illegal migrants under the National Register of Citizens. The organized rigging in the elections further ignites the violence and clashes in the region. She further has upped the ante in her poll-bound State, charging at the Bharatiya Janata Party with allegations of rigging booths during the Lok Sabha elections.

Mamta Banerjee stated that at the campaign trail in Jhargram. "I know they (BJP) rigged two booths in the Goaltore area and won in last Lok Sabha elections. All mothers, sisters, and brothers, do not let them rig any of the booths this time. Cast your vote on your own."

In the recent week, at least five people were killed during gunfire in election-related violence at two polling stations in India's West Bengal state. Security forces caused most casualties, four killed and four wounded, to control the crowd in Cooch Behar district outside a voting center. West Bengal is renowned for election-related violence, and people have been killed in previous elections when supporters of rival political parties clashed with each other.

In several constituencies around Kolkata, the cultural elite still holds ground, where the BJP is still regarded as an outsider. The demographics also help the TMC in the upcoming rounds of polling. There is 27% Muslim population in West Bengal, but they are not scattered in the State. This election is being found on performance and religious basis, giving the TMC an upper hand in the next rounds.

The demand of the people of Bengal has organized the unorganized sectors of labors and Fisheries. There are many promises from both sides, still unfulfilled. Hence the massive Campaign launched by the BJP and TMC, but the massive resentment in the rural areas of West Bengal. There are different opinions and predictions regarding the

elections. The trend and voting percentage from 2011 onward elections of the Lok sabha and West Bengal Assembly in the region of Midnapore, Bankura has given ample amount of indications that the population and the specifically minority of the region looking towards Mamta Banerjee, who can give importance to the aspirations and demands of the region.

Meanwhile, opponents claim that the BJP is playing down its religious nationalism and focusing on development rhetoric to pin out the Banerjee down. It has been Delhi versus Bengal for a long time. Mamata wants to be seen as the incorruptible daughter of the West Bengal; the BJP and its leaders portray her as the author of chaos and barrier to the State's progress.