Sudip Bandopadhyay To Run For 6th Consecutive Term In The Lower House (Image: @SudipBAITC)Sudip Bandyopadhyay is a sitting TMC MP serving his 5th term in the lower house of the Parliament from Kolkata Uttar constituency of West Bengal. TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee has nominated him again to run for the 18th parliamentary elections from the same seat.
Before serving as an MP, he was an MLA in West Bengal since 1991. During his three-decade political career, Bandyopadhyay has been a member and chairperson of various committees. During his last tenure, he registered an overall 73 percent attendance, participated in a total of 44 debates, and asked zero questions.
Bandyopadhyay was arrested in 2017 by the CBI for his non-cooperation in his alleged involvement in the Rose Valley ponzi scheme. Ahead of LS polls the Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson and state general secretary Kunal Ghosh attacked Sudip Bandopadhyay, calling him a “bigger Shahjahan” without naming him directly and also referred to him as ‘Modi’s men’. Ghosh also demanded a probe against him in an alleged ‘coal scam’. Mentioning that Kunal Ghosh currently has difference with the TMC. However, in an earlier interview in 2014, Sudip Bandyopadhyay gave himself full marks as a legislator.
Kolkata Uttar is a general category parliamentary seat with a 79.8% literacy rate. The Muslim, SC, and ST voters are 21.3%, 4.8%, and 0.2% respectively. The constituency is remarkable in terms of representing 100 percent Urban voters. In the last parliamentary election, the total turnout was around 65.7%.
The Lok Sabha constituency is represented by TMC MLAs in all its assemblies. In the last general election, Sudip Bandopadhyay received 49.96 percent votes which was almost over 14 percent from its last 35.94%.
BJP has fielded Tapas Roy from Kolkata Uttar who joined BJP after quitting TMC, said he wants to build peaceful Bengal by removing ‘anarchist government’.