WEST Bengal votes in the second and final phase of the Assembly elections on Wednesday. People in West Bengal will not only be choosing 142 MLAs across the State’s political heartland, but also will be deciding whether the TMC still holds its southern fortress or the BJP has finally found a road to the State Secretariat, Nabanna. If the first phase on April 23 tested whether the BJP could retain its traditional edge in north Bengal and adjoining districts, the final round shifts the battle decisively to the TMC’s home turf - Kolkata, Howrah, North and South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Hooghly and Purba Bardhaman. For the BJP, phase two is not merely the final round - it is the real test of whether anti-incumbency, corruption charges and citizenship politics can breach the ruling party’s strongest wall. For the TMC, holding this belt means the road to a fourth straight term remains firmly open.

 

The geography explains the urgency. North 24 Parganas alone has 33 seats, South 24 Parganas 31, Howrah 16, Nadia 17, Hooghly 18, Purba Bardhaman 16, while Kolkata's 11 seats remain symbolically the most prestigious. North and South 24 Parganas remain the heart of that contest - what state politicians often call the “Uttar Pradesh of Bengal's electoral map”, the twin districts whose electoral weight can make or unmake power at Nabanna. After phase one recorded 93.19 per cent polling - the highest ever in the state - Banerjee claimed the TMC had already crossed the 100-seat mark. But the sharpest battle is unfolding on voter lists. The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has turned deletions into perhaps the most politically sensitive issue of phase two. By Wednesday evening, voting will end, but the answer will wait till May 4 - whether the BJP has done enough to turn north Bengal’s momentum into a statewide breakthrough, or Banerjee has once again sealed the south and with it, the road to Nabanna for a fourth consecutive term.