North Bengal goes to polls tomorrow, challenge for Mamata Banerjee

In the four Lok Sabha seats in North Bengal that go to poll in the firstphase in West Bengal tomorrow, it will be Mamata Banerjee's fight to make a mark.

The "Paribartan" wave that has swept through the state is yet to make its presence felt in this region.

Apart from Darjeeling, which is the focus of attention among the fourseats, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar constituencies would gofor elections in the first phase of the five-phase poll for 42 Lok Sabha seats in the fray.

Securing support from the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha(GJM), BJP candidate S SAhluwalia may have an edge in Darjeeling, but with its celebritycandidate footballer Baichung Bhutia, TMC is making all efforts toget its foothold in the political landscape of the hills.

BJP,which surveys suggest, is expected to substantially increase its voteshare in the state, is also expecting to perform well in the neighbouring Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri constituencies, where too there are a considerable number of voters from the

Gorkha community.In Alipurduar constituency BJP claims to have a voter base of its own and in 2009 polled about 26 per cent of the votes. Incidentally,apart from his Brigade rally in Kolkata, BJP's prime ministerialcandidate Narendra Modi participated in a rally only in this part ofthe state at Siliguri, so far.Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhitoo attended a workers' meet in this part of the state.ASTMC has never won any of these four seats, Mamata Baerjee has madeall efforts with a number of rallies in favour of her party candidates here.

Meanwhile,in a four-cornered fight, the Left is trying to retain its own voteshare, which may see them sailing through in Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar constituencies. It should be noted that in the recent panchayat election, Jalpaiguri was the only district where Left manged to retain the zilla parishad on its own. All in all, six million voters would get the opportunity to elect their representatives in Lok Sabha in these four seats, where a total of 47 candidates are in the fray.