In one Calcutta seat, the Trinamul Congress’s lead has only increased in the past 10 years, no matter which election it was.

In 2011, Firhad Hakim had won from Calcutta Port by 25,033 votes. Five years later, he won the seat again, this time by 26,548 votes.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Trinamul’s Calcutta South candidate Mala Roy had polled 82,102 votes from this constituency. Her nearest rival Chandra Kumar Bose of the BJP had got 45,863 votes. The margin: over 39,000 votes.

This election, if one Trinamul candidate appears most certain about his victory, that is Firhad.

Firhad, the city’s outgoing mayor and the state’s outgoing urban development minister, says this time the margin will be possibly higher.

“In my door-to-door campaigns and meetings, I have never said please vote for me. Never,” Firhad said. “I have told my electorate to find someone who has done more than me in this constituency in the past few years and cast votes in his favour.”

Mohammad Mukhtar, the United Front candidate

Firhad listed a sewage pumping station at Kabitirtha Park that should bring relief from waterlogging in parts of Ekbalpore, Mominpore and Garden Reach; a desilting programme to ensure that water keeps flowing down the pipelines to Tolly Nullah; a water pumping station at Watgunge to address the shortage of drinking water; several girls’ schools and a flyover connecting Ramnagar More to Kantapukur.

“There is more left to be done,” Firhad said. “A logistics hub at Garden Reach has been built. Our aim is to ensure women who work on assembling mobile phones or those with some other skill get to work in a proper environment in this hub.”

The Calcutta Port constituency was once dreaded for criminal activities. Deputy commissioner of police, port, Vinod Mehta, and his bodyguard Mukhtar Ali were murdered in Garden Reach in 1984.

Nearly three decades later in February 2013, a police officer was shot dead in violence that broke out over filing of nominations for a student’s body election at Hari Mohan Ghose College in Garden Reach. Calcutta’s police commissioner RK Pachnanda lost his post.

Mohammad Mukhtar, who was later arrested for his alleged involvement in the death of sub-inspector Tapas Chowdhury, is the Congress candidate of the United Front this time.

“The state government has all its machinery in place. Then why can’t it prove my involvement in that case? Why am I still out and not in prison?” asks Mukhtar. “People of this area have realised that bluff and will vote against it.”

In a constituency with over 40 per cent minority voters, the BJP has decided to go with Awadh Kishore Gupta, its candidate from last time.

Awadh Kishore Gupta, the BJP’s candidate

Gupta is riding a hope of consolidating Hindu votes in the constituency and securing over 46,000 votes that Rakesh Singh, the Congress candidate in 2016 and now his fellow worker in the BJP, had bagged. Gupta then had polled a little over 11,000 votes and Rakesh is now in custody after being arrested in a cocaine case.

“The minority vote will be split between Firhad and Mukhtar. There is a clear polarisation in this constituency and the BJP will reap the benefits,” said Gupta. “Half of the projects that are being talked about are yet to take off.”

The perceived failure of some Trinamul councillors to deliver the basics has continued to embarrass the leaders across wards.

“There is no proper health care facility in the area,” said Mohammad Shahid, a resident of Dent Mission Row.

“A maternity home in Kidderpore has been converted into an annex of SSKM Hospital. This will be a mother and child hub,” Hakim says elaborating on his plans. “The existing infrastructure of the Garden Reach maternity home is being overhauled.”

Criminal lawyers said the number of cases from Garden Reach and Ekbalpore police station reaching them in Alipore has gone down. “From a monthly average of over 300 cases from Garden Reach police station, the number has come down to 110,” said Arindam Das, a criminal lawyer of Alipore Court.

But demand for jobs has gone up. A bustling market area skirting Calcutta’s port, young men and women want jobs to meet their aspirations.

“Even if a few MSME’s (Micro Small and Medium Enterprises) set up units here, a lot of us will land with a job,” said Shagir Hussain, a commerce graduate and a resident of Dr Sudhir Bose Road in Kidderpore.