West Bengal Assembly election 2021, Ratna Chatterjee profile: TMC’s Behala Purba candidate to face BJP’s Payel Sarkar

Ratna Chatterjee has been fielded by the Trinamool Congress from the Behala Purba Assembly constituency in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls. She will face competition from actor and BJP candidate Payel Sarkar, when the constituency goes to polls in the fourth of eight phases on 10 April. Ratna is the estranged wife of former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who had also served as a minister in the TMC government. Even though he was considered close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Sovan later joined the BJP in 2019. Even as a confident Ratna said she will surely defeat Sovan if they compete against each other, the latter walked out of the BJP after Sarkar was fielded instead of him from Behala Purba seat. After Sovan’s exit, Banerjee had asked Ratna to take care of party affairs in her husband’s Assembly segment and municipal ward. Ahead of the civic polls in March last year, TMC had named Ratna in-charge of ‘Banglar Gorbo Mamata’ — a public outreach campaign — in Behala East assembly constituency. The Behala Purba Assembly constituency lies in the South 24 Parganas district. It is a part of the Kolkata Dakshin Lok Sabha constituency. Elections for the West Bengal Assembly will be held in eight phases, up from seven last time, beginning with polling for 30 seats on 27 March. The second phase of West Bengal’s assembly elections has been scheduled for 1 April and will cover 30 constituencies, followed by the third phase on 6 April for 31 seats, the fourth on 10 April for 44 constituencies, the fifth on 17 April for 45 seats, sixth for 43 seats on 22 April, seventh phase on 26 April for 36 seats and last and eighth phase on 29 April for 35 seats. The results of the election will be declared on 2 May.