In Behala Purba, 3 Women Lead Fight For Former Kolkata Mayor's Turf

Behala Purba, which is considered a TMC bastion over the last decade, has more women voters (1.56 lakh) than men (1.51 lakh), possibly because of which the three main candidates are women.

A noteworthy house in the middle-class locality of Parnasree Pally in south Kolkata is the residence of Ratna Chatterjee, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Behala Purba, who is fighting her first election, in the middle of a bitter separation from her husband Sovan Chatterjee, the former mayor of Kolkata and sitting MLA from the seat who joined the BJP in late 2019. "Since childhood, I have seen a lot of elections. First, it was my parents and then my husband. So, this is not new for me. However, this is my first election as a candidate so there is a bit of excitement. (CM) Mamata Banerjee has worked a lot for the people so as a TMC candidate, I don't have much pressure in reaching out to the people," Ms Chatterjee told PTI. Sovan Chatterjee quit the BJP along with his friend Baishakhi Banerjee after they were denied nominations by the opposition party. Besides, being a mayor, he won the seat for two consecutive terms -- 2011 and 2016. He wanted to contest this time too from the constituency, but the BJP chose to field actor Payel Sarkar. "The party, not the candidate, is more important. But yes, if Sovan had been fielded by the BJP, family issues would have been raked up in public domain I have been saved of that," Ratna Chatterjee, 49, said.