New Delhi, April 13 (AHN) West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress Chairperson Mamata Banerjee alleged on Sunday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was contemplating covert means for usurping power as the state goes to Assembly elections in two phases later this month.

Significantly, she chose to air the assertion in her rallies across Bankura, Purba and Paschim Bardhaman districts, where she also claimed that the BJP is planning “a third Partition of Bengal”. Such allegations of a possible “division” have been raised earlier, too, even during the 2024 Lok Sabha election. These charges mostly come from political opponents, seeing the BJP’s results in the North and the western parts of the state. Almost half of the 12 seats that the BJP won in West Bengal in 2024 were from these areas.

Bankura district is situated in the western part of West Bengal. Further West, and southwest, touching the borders of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha are Paschim Bardhaman, Purulia, Jhargram, and Purba and Paschim Medinipur. Many parts of these districts lie in the “Rarh Bengal” region, which was narrated as one “planned part”, apart from allegedly dividing the state into North and South.

The BJP had won several of the Lok Sabha seats in the region in the 2019 Parliamentary election, also scoring well in many of the Assembly segments in the 2021 Assembly polls. However, the Trinamool wrested some of the Lok Sabha seats in 2024.

Now, Mamata has revived the “partition” charge. Stirring the Bengali Asmita, she further stated that parts of the state may also be merged with Bihar or Odisha, “where Bengalis would be targeted”.

Bankura Lok Sabha constituency has six Assembly segments in Bankura district, while one comes in Purulia. In 2019, the BJP wrested the seat from the Trinamool by a margin of over 1.74 lakh votes. But it lost the seat to the ruling party in 2024 by less than 33,000 votes. In the 2021 Assembly election, the BJP won four of the seven segments here, while in the 2024 Parliamentary poll, it could lead in only one – that of Bankura Vidhan Sabha seat.

The Parliamentary constituency of Bardhaman-Durgapur is spread across both the Purba and Paschim Burdwan districts, where in 2019, BJP’s S. S. Ahluwalia defeated the sitting Trinamool MP in a close contest. In the subsequent Lok Sabha polls of 2024, however, Trinamool’s cricketer-candidate Kirti Azad won the seat with a convincing margin. Among the seven Assembly seats within this Lok Sabha constituency, the Trinamool held its lead in all but one seat. The BJP had managed a win in the Durgapur Paschim segment in 2021, where it retained its lead in 2024.

Asansol Lok Sabha constituency, where all the seven Assembly segments are in Paschim Bardhaman district, went to Babul Supriyo – then with the BJP – both in 2014 and 2019. He subsequently defected to the Trinamool Congress. In 2024, cine star Shatrughan Sinha won the seat for the state’s ruling party. But the BJP managed to keep its lead in two of the seven Assembly segments in 2014, where it had won the 2021 state poll. It also managed to retain the Purulia Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 poll, but lost its margin of victory significantly. Among the seven Assembly seats here, while the BJP had secured four in the 2021 Vidhan Sabha poll, the lead fell to three in the 2024 Parliamentary election. The BJP also lost the Jhargram Lok Sabha seat, after winning in 2019. The Trinamool swept the seven Vidhan Sabha segments in 2021, maintaining the lead in the Parliamentary poll as well.

The result was almost similar in the Medinipur Parliamentary constituency, where six of the seven Assembly segments are in Paschim Medinipur district and one in Purba Medinipur. However, among the seven Assembly seats here, while the BJP could win only one in 2021, it managed to lead in two during the Parliamentary poll.

Kanthi Lok Sabha constituency has all its seven Assembly segments in Purba Medinipur, where Soumendu Adhikari of the BJP won in 2024. While in 2021, the BJP won four of the seven Assembly segments, in the 2024 Parliamentary poll, it extended the lead to six seats.

Assembly elections will be held in West Bengal on April 23 and 29, and results are scheduled for May 4.