A strong wind of change threatens to unseat two-time CPI-M MLA and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen contesting from Burdwan South constituency, considered an impregnable Marxist fort.
People in this semi-urban constituency in Burdwan district, known as the rice bowl of West Bengal, largely believe that Sen is the brain behind the state government's policy of 'hasty acquisition of fertile farmland' for setting up industry.
This coupled with some farmers' suicides resulting from successive crop failures have made his position shaky, proved by results of past elections, including panchayat and municipal, following the 2006 Assembly election in which Sen had won by a margin of 35,242 votes.
In fact, the CPI-M started to lose its grip on the district, where polling will be conducted in two phases - May 3 and May 7, right after the 2006 elections.
In the municipal election that followed the Assembly election, the party lost the long-held municipalities like Memary, Guskara, Kalna and Dhainhat.
In the Burdwan South segment in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, CPI-M candidate Sahidul Haq trailed Trinamool's candidate Nargis Begum by 99 votes, indicating things to come.
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Political observers say that a major chunk of the 2,15,484-strong electorate in this constituency is disillusioned with Sen for several reasons, the chief among them being lack of development in the region, large-scale nepotism and above all farmers' suicides.
To capitalise on the mood for a change, Trinamool Congress candidate Rabiranjan Chattopadhyay met voters personally and held meetings in places more or less encompassing all parts of the constituency.
"Sen has failed to touch the hearts of voters and failed to explain the suicide by seven farmers in the space of nine months and lack of progress," some people in the constituency said.
On the other hand, Trinamool candidate Chattopadhyay, an ex-head of the Bengali department of the Burdwan University, is riding on a wave of anti-incumbency and peole's large-scale resentment against CPI-M hand in the killings of Congress workers at Mangolkote.
Saying he got spontaneous reponse from the people, Sen during his election campaigns explaind that he could not visit them frequently as he was tied down by the responsibility of his ministry.
Refuting the Opposition charge, he said it is a lie that his party did not do any development work in the district and cited the proposed Aerotropolis project as proof.
He also said that work would soon begin to move the congested Teenkonya bus stand outside the bustling Burdwan city.
CPI-M district committee secretary Amal Haldar claimed that the people, who had deserted them, had started coming back to the party fold.
"The voters are also angry at violence let loose by the Trinamool Congress recently including bomb attacks in the premises of the Burdwan University to protest over so-called discrepancies in the appointment of Group D staff," Haldar said.