West Bengal Assembly election 2021, Srijan Bhattacharya profile: Student leader to enter poll fray on CPM ticket

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has fielded Srijan Bhattacharya from the Singur constituency in the upcoming West Bengal polls. The Students’ Federation of India West Bengal secretary will be contesting against TMC’s Becharam Manna and BJP’s Rabindra Nath Bhattacharya, when the constituency goes to polls in the fourth of eight phases on 10 April. Hailing from Silchar, Bhattacharya entered into student politics at Jadavpur University. In September 2019, he led a rally from the varsity campus to protest the vandalism of the union room by ABVP supporters, following the attack on Union minister Babul Supriyo. In January 2020, Bhattacharya, along with 30 others resigned from JU’s SFI unit in protest against “inaction against molestation and sexual harassment, inherent patriarchy within the leadership, resorting to unethical ways to provide admission to students, discrimination on the basis of gender, caste and taunting for smoking cigarettes and wearing short dresses as some of the major reasons for quitting the organisation”. The Singur Assembly constituency lies in the Hooghly district. It is a part of the Hooghly 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.