Five years back, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, north Bengal voters had heard two new nicknames of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Mamata Banerjee, given by each other.

On April 3, 2019, when both were in the region to campaign for their parties, Modi addressed Mamata as “Speedbreaker Didi” while she used the term “Expiry Babu” to denote the Prime Minister.

Exactly after five years, on April 4, Modi and Mamata will be again in north Bengal’s Cooch Behar on the same day on election campaigns.

Voting would be held in three seats of the region — Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar in the first phase on April 19.

“It was interesting to hear the two top leaders coming up with sobriquets on each other. As they had used the terms at the commencement of their poll campaign in 2019, both had referred to the other’s nickname a number of times later in their speeches. This time again, they will be in north Bengal on the same day. We are curious to hear whether they come up with such terms about each other again,” said Soumen Nag, a social researcher based in Siliguri.

April 1, which marks commencement of the new financial year, will also witness the launch of campaign by ace campaigners of Trinamul and BJP in north Bengal where general elections would be held in the first three phases.

The Prime Minister will speak in three public meetings, the other two in Jalpaiguri and Balurghat on April 7, in north Bengal.

Mamata, on the other hand, will address a dozen meetings across the region, and also attend a road show in Siliguri on April 16.

“From April 4 to April 16, she will campaign in north Bengal in three phases and will cover six (of eight) Lok Sabha seats of the region where elections would be held in the first two phases,” said a source.

She will be in Malda at the end of April, where elections in two seats (Malda north and south) will be held on May 7.

On Monday, Trinamul’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will hold an organisational meeting in the southern parts of Siliguri on April 1. Next day, he will head for Cooch Behar.

As the poll dates are drawing near, both Trinamul and BJP are persistently focusing on north Bengal, a region where the saffron camp had won seven of eight seats in 2019. Trinamul couldn’t win a single seat as the eighth seat (Malda south) went to Congress.

Even in 2021, though Trinamul came to power with a resounding victory in the state, it lagged behind BJP and secured 23 of 54 Assembly seats. BJP, on the other hand, secured 30 seats.

However, things started turning in Trinamul’s favour in 2022 as the party could win all the civic bodies in this region. Also, the party performed well in the rural polls and could win the Dhupguri Assembly by-poll last year.

“These results have come as a booster for Trinamul and have mounted pressure on the BJP. Thus, both camps are determined now. While BJP is desperate to retain the seats, Trinamul wants to wrest the seats from the saffron party,” said an observer.

For BJP, it is an important region as the party has fielded candidates like state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar (in Balurghat), Nisith Pramanik and Raju Bista in Cooch Behar and Darjeeling.

“Darjeeling is yet another seat which BJP doesn’t want to lose. It has been winning the seat since 2009,” the observer added.

Along with Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah will also be in north Bengal.

“He will address two public meetings in Mainaguri (on April 7) and Alipurduar (on April 9). We are confident of retaining the seats and even securing the Malda south seat,” said a senior BJP functionary in Siliguri.

Like Abhishek, Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, will reach north Bengal on Monday.