BJP workers thronging Arjun Singh’s house-cum-office in North 24 Parganas, about 43 kilometres away from Kolkata, believe the game is over for the Trinamool in the jute-mill belt of Kakinada-Jagatdal following Sunday night's violence.
The jute mill belt, which covers the Bengal Assembly constituencies of Bhatpara, Jagatdal and Noapara that will vote in the second phase on Wednesday, has been on the boil for the past 48 hours.
People standing outside of Arjun Singh's house in North 24 Pargana Sourjya Bhowmick
On late Sunday, clashes between the TMC and the BJP broke out in Jagatdal
“Pawan Singh will win Bhatpara because Arjun Singh has been winning it since 2001 and Bhatpara Arjun Singh will win,” said the man manning the main office on the first floor of Arjun Singh’s four-storey office.
Arjun Singh is a veteran leader from North 24 Parganas with strong influence in the industrial belt of Bhatpara and Jagatdal. He began in the Congress, later joined the Trinamool, and won the Bhatpara Assembly seat multiple times between 2001 and 2016.
In 2019, Singh joined the BJP and won the Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat. He returned to Trinamool in 2022, rejoined the BJP in 2024, and remains a key figure in the jute mill belt politics.
His son, Pawan Singh, won the 2019 Bhatpara bypoll defeating Madan Mitra.
These constituencies—Jagatdal, Bhatpara, and Noapara, where Arjun Singh is at direct contest with the TMC combine industry, labour votes, migrant communities, and violent politics—making them one of Bengal’s most watched belts.
In 2021, Pawan Singh, son of Arjun Singh, won the Bhatpara Assembly seat by 13,687 votes. In neighbouring Jagatdal, the Trinamool Congress’s Somenath Shyam secured victory by a margin of 18,364 votes. The TMC also retained Noapara, where Manju Basu won by 26,710 votes, defeating Arjun Singh’s brother-in-law Sunil Singh.
TMC party office in Jaggatdal Sourjya Bhowmick
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“Jagatdal ka kaam toh parso raat ko hi ho gaya [Jagatdal’s fate was decided two nights before],” said the man, who had a saffron tilak on his forehead.
The violence, which occurred hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally, first erupted at Atchala Bagan in Jagatdal after supporters of the BJP and Trinamool clashed. Tensions rose further when Kolkata’s former police commissioner Rajesh Kumar, who is also the BJP candidate for Jagatdal, went to the police station to file a complaint, with the BJP alleging that Trinamool supporters pelted stones outside.
The BJP alleged that Trinamool workers later attacked the residence of outgoing Bhatpara MLA and BJP candidate Pawan Singh. CAPF jawan Yogesh Sharma, part of Pawan Singh’s security detail, was shot in the leg and taken to hospital.
The police have arrested four people, including a TMC councillor, in connection with the violence. Central forces reportedly dragged the councillor out from under his bed.
The situation is tense. On Monday night, a Shyamnagar resident wrote on Facebook, “We can’t sleep, there is bombing going on.”
Arjun Singh’s office was brimming with people on Tuesday. Central forces checked bags and identity documents before letting anyone in.
On the first floor, hundreds had crammed the hall, with one man checking photocopies of voter identity cards and calling out names. He was disturbed by the unruly crowd.
The Telegraph Online asked three people what was going on. “Paisa mil raha hain [money is being given],” was the reply, a claim that could not be verified.
In the room behind the hall, party workers from different wards waited for last minute instructions.
A booth worker from Noapara complained about the lack of organisation.
“Is there no system? Are there no instructions,” she asked. “Ebar harle chamra khule diye astey hobe [if we lose this time we will be skinned alive].”
How will the special intensive revision (SIR) impact non-Bengali voters in the region who form the BJP vote bank?
“In my booth 495 names are out because of SIR. Of these, 380 are dead,” said Raju Saha, a tall, dark man, a BJP functionary from Garulia municipality. “The ruling party usually casts votes for 30 dead people on average per booth. You can imagine what used to happen.”
People standing in the hall at Arjun Singh's house at North 24 Pargana Sourjya Bhowmick
In Bengal, there are 340-350 booths on average per Assembly constituency. If Saha’s calculation is correct, then that’s about 10,000 odd false votes per Assembly seat.
Saha spoke like a poll manager with experience, which is unlikely for the BJP, a party that has risen to prominence in Bengal in less than 10 years and has never been in power in the state.
“I was with the Trinamool since its inception,” Saha said. “I quit in 2022 due to differences with the local MLA. I was a polling agent. I know each and everyone in my area, unless a new tenant crops up. I don’t need a voter list to know people.”
Hordes of workers were going in and out of Arjun Singh’s office, where his personal assistant Pappu Singh gave them last minute instructions.
In an ante-chamber, two people were glued to their computers sifting through data. A priest was chanting mantras and performing Hanuman puja amid the hullabaloo and with a portrait of Bharat Mata also on the wall.
The man who had a saffron tilak on his forehead identified himself as Abir.
“In 2022 I travelled through UP and Delhi. I was sitting at home doing nothing, the police picked me up and sent me,” he was telling another party worker.
Pawan Singh wasn’t there. The workers claimed he had gone to Apollo Hospital to check on his security guard who was shot.
Arjun Singh was holed up in a lodge near Badamtala, in Noapara constituency.
Outside, central forces were everywhere. The new market area, where “Pappu Telecom”, “Salim Tailors” and hoardings of TMC candidates Somnath Shyam and Amit Gupta gave way to Jai Shree Ram flags and hoardings of Pawan Singh and Rajesh Kumar, was full of hundreds of armed personnel in fatigues.
They were even patrolling the lanes; the region is no stranger to violence.
The TMC office in contrast was largely empty. Around 15 people jostled around with eyes fixated on the central forces patrolling the streets. Somnath Shyam, the TMC strongman whose hoardings dot the jute mill belt, was nowhere to be found.
No one seemed to have any idea where he was.