West Bengal Assembly election 2021, Champdani profile: Abdul Mannan, Leader of Opposition and Congress MLA, to seek re-election from seat

Champdani is an Assembly/Vidhan Sabha constituency in the Hooghly district of West Bengal. It falls under the Sreerampur Lok Sabha constituency. In the 2016 West Bengal Assembly election, the constituency had a total of 1,84,385 registered voters. As per orders of the Delimitation Commission, Champdani is composed of - Champdany Municipality, Baidyabati Municipality, Ward No. 1 and 2 and 20 to 24 of Serampur Municipality and Payarapur gram panchayat of Sreerampur-Uttarpara community development block. Voter turnout in previous election The voter turnout in Champdani in the previous Assembly election was 76.89 percent. Past election results and winners In the 2016 polls, Opposition Leader in the West Bengal Assembly and senior Congress legislator Abdul Mannan was declared the winner from Champdani. He secured 81,330 votes as against 74,048 votes won by Muzaffar Khan of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC). This year, the Congress, in alliance with the Left Front and the newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF) - as ‘Sanyukta Morcha’ - projected itself as a “third alternative force” in the emerging TMC versus BJP political binary in the state. Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma on Monday (1 March) slammed the party’s tie-up with ISF led by Muslim cleric Abbas Siddiqui, saying it was against the party’s core ideology and Gandhian and Nehruvian secularism. He also said that the party “cannot be selective in fighting the communalists” and it must do so in all its manifestations, irrespective of religion and colour. Earlier, Mannan had said he would object to the alliance if the ISF joined hand with the AIMIM. In 2011, TMC’s Muzaffar Khan had won the electoral battle against CPM candidate Jibesh Chakraborty. He became the runner-up after losing by a margin of 36,313 votes or 22.45 percent. On 26 February, the Election Commission announced the schedule for Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry. The voting will begin on 27 March, with Bengal having the maximum eight phases continuing till 29 April, the poll body had said. The election will be held to elect a total of 294 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs). The state is held by the AITC with an absolute majority, with Mamata Banerjee on her second consecutive term as chief minister. The ruling party is fighting a pitched battle with archrival BJP, while the Congress-led alliance is also a key player in the fray.