An uncanny lull prevailed in the air as Bengal prepared to go for the seventh and final phase of elections to nine parliamentary constituencies considered a stronghold of the Trinamool Congress which presently holds all the seats up for grabs.

Elections will be held to Basirhat, Barasat, Dum Dum, Mathurapur, Jaynagar, Diamond Harbour and Jadavpur in North and South 24 Parganas in that order and Kolkata North and South constituencies.

“No one is talking … there is a strange silence … Allah knows what will happen,” says Moinuddin from Falta Diamond Harbour while Rabi Santra from Jadavpur says “some netas are talking communal but the questions is whether the people are taking it.” Albeit, silence is often most piercing to the politicians’ ears, more so to those in power, say pundits.

True perhaps 2024 is different from 2019 or 2021. While much of the sharp communal polarisation that had been the hallmark of 2019 and 2021 (Assembly) elections has been blunted to a reasonable extent — save in some pockets — with corruption and women-emotive Sandeshkhali issues taking the center stage what tends to keep all sides particularly the TMC and Opposition BJP on the tenterhooks is the re-emergence of the Left as a reasonable force with a frightful capability of springing some surprises — or in the least slicing away big chunk of votes — in at least three or four seats, local experts say.

A total of 1.63 crore voters - 83.19 lakh men, 80.20 lakh women, and 538 belonging to the third gender are likely to exercise their franchise in 17,470 polling stations to be manned by 960 companies of central forces and a large posse of state police.

Some of more famous names out of the 124 contestants contesting in the seventh phase are TMC’s Diamond Harbour nominee and sitting MP Abhishek Banerjee who besides being the party’s general secretary and a future Chief Ministerial candidate is also the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The two-time TMC MP who is pitted in a tri-cornered contest against CPI (M)’s students’ leader and son of the soil Pratik Ur Rahaman and BJP’s Abhijit Das hopes to win the seat by 3 lakh margin on account of his creating Diamond Harbour a “model constituency” a narrative often rejected by the Left that calls it “a model laboratory of violence and cold horror.”

Besides him TMC leader in Lok Sabha is Sudip Bandopadhyay is contesting from Kolkata North seat against BJP nominee Tapas Roy a former minister who quit the party to join the saffron outfit just before the polls started and Congress veteran and sitting Rajya Sabha member Pradip Bhattacharya.

A third such seat is Dum Dum where the TMC veteran and three-time MP Saugato Roy is contesting in a fierce battle against CPI(M) stalwart Sujan Chakrabarty and BJP’s Silbhadra Dutta, once a Mukul Roy protégé.

Kolkata South that sent Mamata Banerjee to Parliament for six times before she became the Chief Minister too presents a keen contest between sitting TMC NP Mala Roy and BJP’s Debashri Chowdhury a former Union Minister and Raiganj MP --- who according to her own party men has been given a punishment posting a la Dilip Ghosh.

Though both of them are confident of winning CPI(M) is putting its money on its dark horse Saira Shah Halim a niece of actor Naseeruddin Shah and daughter of a former Army Lt General besides being the daughter in law of longest serving Bengal Assembly speaker HA Halim. Though a traditional TMC stronghold which has the history of sending  Shyama Prasad Mukherjee to Parliament too, Kolkata South has a good presence of minority voters that might be a source of encouragement for Marxists.

All eyes could also be set on the Basirhat seat which has a good 45 percent minority votes. But more importantly Basirhat catches attention on account of Sandeshkhali being its one of the seven Assembly segments. Considered a microcosm of the broader electoral battle this time round drawing national attention due to allegations of atrocities on women and land grabs by local TMC leaders Basirhat could present a tricky picture this time round.

The BJP which led the Sandeshkhali battle and iced the cake by nominating Rekha Patra, a local victim-turned-protestor the TMC has fielded a former MP Haji Nurul Islam once black-listed by his own party for fanning communal violence. The Left on the other hand has fielded Nirapada Sardar a former three-time MLA from Sandeshkhali.

Basirhat also gains importance because the BJP considers it to be a prestige seat with Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally speaking to Patra over phone  inspiring her for the upcoming fight. Basirhat is also important for State Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari because Patra is his hand-picked candidate and her victory or defeat could make or break much of Adhikari’s importance in State politics.

While from the adjoining Barasat seat TMC’s sitting MP Kakoli Ghoshdastidar is locked in a tri-cornered contest against BJP and Forward Bloc, down South from Jadavpur an elite constituency CPI(M)’s young Turk Srijan Bhattacharya is contesting against TMC’s Sayani Ghosh and BJP’s Dr Anirban Ganguli. A traditional Left stronghold Ghosh who replaced sitting TMC MP Mimi Chakrabarty is getting strong challenge from her opponents.

The Jadavpur seat is historically significant for the TMC, as it was from here that a young Mamata Banerjee first made her mark by defeating CPI (M) veteran Somnath Chatterjee in 1984.  It is also important because former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee lost his last electoral battle from Jadavpur Assembly seat in 2011 before bidding politics a goodbye.