New Delhi: Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee On Wednesday, he filed his nomination from Bhabanipur and staged a show of strength with a road march from his Kalighat residence in Kolkata to Alipore Survey Building. Supporters raised slogans in his favor Trinamool Congress The (TMC) chief walked for about 800 meters and greeted party workers with folded hands as she tried to project confidence ahead of a high-level contest.Soon after filing her nomination, Banerjee launched a scathing attack on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list, saying she was “saddened” by the deletion of thousands of names in Bengal. Accusing the Narendra Modi-led Center of interference, he warned that such an exercise could undermine the fairness of the elections and promised legal aid to the affected voters.“I congratulate everyone, thank you, respect, salute, Jai Jinendra and Sat Shri Akal. Today, as I filed my nomination, I want to say that I will work for Bhawanipur constituency as well as every center and every area. TMC supremo said, we will form the government.Bhawanipur, considered Banerjee’s political stronghold for a long time, is now emerging as a major battlefield. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Suvendu Adhikari against him, making the contest a direct one-on-one reminiscent of the 2021 Nandigram elections, where Adhikari had defeated the Chief Minister.

While Banerjee won the 2021 bypoll here with a landslide victory with over 71 percent votes, recent trends show that the competition is stiff. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, TMC’s lead in the region was significantly reduced, with the BJP taking the lead in several municipal wards. The party leadership has since urged workers to avoid complacency by setting ambitious margin targets to retain the seat.The SIR exercise has further intensified the competition. Party sources claim that over 40,000 names have been removed from the list, with several others under investigation, giving rise to competing narratives to target voters. The mixed demographic profile of the constituency – spanning Bengali and non-Bengali Hindus, minorities and migrant communities – adds another layer of unpredictability.