4 min readBaranagar (north 24 Parganas)Mar 25, 2026 07:10 AM IST First published on: Mar 25, 2026 at 07:10 AM ISTWearing a crisp, white cotton salwar suit and with a microphone in her hand, actor-politician Sayantika Banerjee moves door to door in the afternoon heat. The incumbent Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA from Baranagar on the outskirts of Kolkata, she addresses locals about their problems, taking the questions head-on.“I know the water supply is a struggle. I am fully aware of the weight of these civic issues, and I ask for your trust,” Banerjee tells the voters, her voice a blend of urgency and earnestness. “I have had only a year-and-a-half since the 2024 bypoll to make an impact. Please, keep your faith in Mamata Banerjee and me.”AdvertisementIn the evening, the atmosphere shifts and it is BJP candidate Sajal Ghosh’s turn at the microphone. His hands folded in a gesture of humility and looking up at families tracking his movements from their balconies, his pitch is straightforward: “You have given them (TMC) a chance for the last 15 years, now all I want is one chance. If you find us lacking, vote us out after five years.”Though it may not be as high-profile a constituency as some, Baranagar carries the weight of history. Its representative for the first 20 years — 1951 to 1971 — was CPI(M) stalwart and former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. When the watershed elections of 1977 came around, and the CPI(M)-led Left Front sensed that its time had arrived, Basu shifted to the semi-rural Satgachhia Assembly seat in Diamond Harbour to anchor the party’s rural consolidation. The seat, however, remained with the Left and only went out of its hands in 2011 as it was swept out of power after 34 years in 2011.The TMC leader who had led the charge in Baranagar was Tapas Roy, an old associate of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee since her Congress days. However, facing a central agency probe in a corruption case, he switched to the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. In the subsequent bypolls, the TMC fielded Sayantika, who won by just 8,148 votes, down from the 35,147-vote margin of Roy in the previous polls.Advertisement“I had to rush through five years of work in just one and a half. It was a massive challenge, but I have done my bit,” Sayantika tells The Indian Express. Her primary success, she says, is the Rs 7 crore allotted to overhaul roads in the constituency. Asked how she balances stardom with constituency work, she responds with a ready talking point: “Acting is my profession; being a public representative is my responsibility.”BJP’s Sajal Ghosh, a municipal councillor, however, is not convinced about his rival’s argument that she did not get a full term to execute her plans. To him, the crumbling local infrastructure reveals a deeper systemic failure that only “parivartan (change)” can solve. Raising the water woes that locals deal with, he asks: “How many pipes has she actually laid? The intention for development must be visible.”Responding to the TMC’s attacks about him not being a local, Ghosh says Jyoti Basu, too, was not from the area. “It takes me 15-20 minutes on a bike to get here. It’s not about where you sleep, it is about where your heart for development lies,” he says.you may likeThe third person in the fray is the CPI(M)’s Sayandeep Mitra, who takes aim at his two rivals, who have more resources at their disposal. Facing an uphill battle, he tries to remain confident. “Baranagar has collapsed under TMC and the BJP is trying to portray itself as the sole alternative. We know they have an understanding … We have a 200% chance of leading,” he tells The Indian Express.For locals, the elections are not about grand promises made in manifestos but about who can solve the problem of a crumbling infrastructure. “We have to buy water. It is a recurring nightmare. Whoever wins must fix the waterlogging and water supply problems,” says local resident Kanak Saha.A longtime resident of the area, Shibu Sarkar, says he has seen several elections, but this time the contest may be an even closer affair than the bypoll. “It is unpredictable,” he says. “The TMC won the bypoll by a thin margin, the BJP has a known face, and Sayandeep may split votes.”