A seat that was once a bastion of the Trinamool Congress has been virtually without an MLA for the past three years.

That is because the suspected protagonist of the biggest scam to scald the Trinamool regime is the outgoing MLA of Behala West.

Partha Chatterjee, who has represented the seat since 2001, was arrested in July 2022 for alleged corruption in the recruitment of teachers and staff for government-aided schools.

On November 11, 2025, Partha, now suspended from the party, left a hospital on bail, with tears in his eyes, having regained his freedom after more than three years in custody.

This time, Trinamool has fielded Ratna Chatterjee from Behala West. Ratna is the outgoing MLA of Behala East and the estranged wife of former Calcutta mayor Sovan Chatterjee.

Despite not being in the poll fray, Partha looms over any electoral discourse in Behala. "He has let all of us down. The images of the stacks of cash recovered from his friend's flat can never be erased from our minds," said Dulal Biswas, a resident of Parnasree.

Behala West is made up of 10 wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

It had an electorate of just under 300,000 in 2021. Trinamool won the seat by over 50,000 votes then.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool led from Behala West — part of the Kolkata South parliamentary seat — by around 15,000.

Now, the electorate size is just over 286,000, meaning the scale of deletions because of the roll revision is minimal.

There are, however, several long-standing problems that voters said need urgent redress.

Old problems

• The scale of waterlogging, once synonymous with Behala, has dipped. However, several stretches in Thakurpukur and Anandanagar are submerged even a week after a spell of heavy rain.

• The condition of some of the roads is perilous. A long stretch of Biren Roy Road West, from Shakuntala Park to Notunhat, bordering Maheshtala, resembles the surface of the moon.

• The fleet of state buses is dwindling. Many old and trusted routes — 14, 3A, L7A and L7B, to name a few — have ceased to exist.

• The Vidyasagar State General Hospital allegedly lacks many facilities, like a functional blood bank and modern diagnostic tools.

Many blame Partha for the old and lingering problems. But the recruitment scam is unlike any other stain on the ruling party, they said.

Many blots

“As a teacher, I am ashamed. He (Partha) had been the public representative of Behala for such a long time. I took the SSC in 1998 and was appointed in early 1999. To see the downfall of the school education system is heart-wrenching. Three of my junior colleagues lost their jobs following the Supreme Court order,” said Samir Dutta, in his late 50s, who teaches physics at Sarsuna High School, which is over 150 years old.

On April 3, the Supreme Court cancelled the appointments of 17,209 teachers at the secondary and higher secondary levels in government-aided schools, citing irregularities in the 2016 hiring process.

Krishnan Ramaswami, 52, an interior designer, is fed up with the “corruption, syndicate-raj and dole politics”.

“Local youths do not have jobs. But some of them wear thick gold chains. They are regular in bike rallies with party flags. People need and deserve a change,” he said.

In 2021, the BJP came second, polling more than 27 per cent of the votes. The CPM was third. Nihar Bhakta, the CPM candidate in 2021, is contesting again.

The tide is turning, according to Bhakta.

Ram-Bam

“In 2021, a significant section of the traditional Left support base voted for the BJP candidate out of desperation. They thought of the CPM as weak and that the BJP was the best bet to get rid of Trinamool tyranny. Not anymore. They have realised that the BJP cannot be an alternative. The Left votes will return to the CPM. Many Trinamool voters will also vote for us,” said Bhakta.

Indranil Khan, the BJP candidate and a clinical oncologist, also seemed upbeat. “Behala voters have been insulted by the TMC. The party is synonymous with institutional corruption. The TMC is on its way out, in Behala West and the rest of Bengal,” he said.

Many voters do not seem convinced.

“Who I vote for is secondary. The most important thing is who I vote against. For all our follies, we still are a vibrant and inclusive people. The BJP is against the Bengali ethos,” said Abhishek Bhattacharjee, 43, who works with a private organisation.

Trinamool sources said the seat had many aspirants this time. “The choice of Ratna has apparently not gone down well with some of them, and there are murmurs of discontent,”one of them said.

M factor

But then there is Mamata Banerjee, whose association with Behala goes back decades. Across Behala West, it is evident that she still commands absolute loyalty among a large section of voters.

“We are recipients of Lakshmir Bhandar and other welfare schemes. But we are not loyal to Mamata only because of these schemes. She is a fighter. She is our ghorer meye (our own). Yes, there have been mistakes and scams. But we cannot vote for anyone other than Didi,” said Amrita Santra, 41, a homemaker.

Ratna, the Trinamool candidate, brushed aside the Partha factor. “I am focusing on door-to-door campaigns. People are telling me about issues like roads, hospitals and waterlogging. It is true that the MLA funds have not been used properly. But they are not mentioning the outgoing MLA as such,” she said.

“People have faith in Mamata Banerjee. I am confident about winning,” she added.

Behala West votes on April 29