BJP Nominates Anirban Ganguly To Contest From Jadavpur

The Jadavpur seat is unique in terms of giving an opportunity to academicians to win since 1977, except twice – in 1984 to Mamata Banerjee and Mimi Chakraborty in 2019. Dr Anirban Ganguly the scholar turned politician has been nominated to run for election for the upcoming Lok Sabha from the Jadavpur constituency. Anirban Ganguly is the Chairman and Trustee of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, the New Delhi-based think tank of BJP. Does that mean considering the record of electing academician MPs, the BJP tried the formula projecting Anirban Ganguly in Jadavpur? Well, only the election results on June 4 will answer this question.

Anirban Ganguly wears numerous academic and educational distinctions. He holds a PhD in education from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and completed his early education at Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry. He is also a member of BJP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) and a member of the Core Committee of the West Bengal State Unit of BJP.

He has also authored, edited, and co-edited multiple books including ‘Syama Prasad Mookerjee: His Vision of Education (2017), The Modi Doctrine: New Paradigms in India’s Foreign Policy (2016), Redefining Governance: Essays on One Year of Narendra Modi Government (2015), Swami Vivekananda, Buddha & Buddhism (2014), Debating Culture” (2013), “Education: Philosophy & Practice (2011).

In 2021, Ganguly contested the state assembly election as a BJP candidate from the Bolpur-Santiniketan constituency receiving more than 94,000 (40.89%) votes. Ganguly lost in this election by a margin of 22,000 votes to TMC’s Chandranath Sinha but increased the BJP’s vote share by at least 32 percent while the regional party lost its vote share by around 4.5 percent. Notably, in the same constituency in 2016, the BJP had secured 19,000 votes.

Jadavpur is considered as West Bengal’s one of the most challenging Lok Sabha seats. MPs from different political parties including CPI (M), Congress, and TMC have been elected from this seat and it has continued to vote alternately in the last four decades. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee have also won elections from Jadavpur.

To fight elections against Anirban Ganguly TMC has nominated former actress Sayoni Ghosh from Jadhavpur.