Two former Indian Police Service (IPS) officers will be contesting against each other in Bengal, with TMC fielding Humayun Kabir and BJP giving a ticket to Bharati Ghosh from Debra, which is about 100 kilometres away from Kolkata under Paschim Midnapore district of West Bengal.

Of the 60 Assembly seats that will go to polls in the first two phases, the BJP on Saturday announced its list of 57 candidates. This included former IPS officer and BJP vice-president Bharati Ghosh.

With Ghosh in the fray against TMC’s Humayun Kabir, all eyes are going to be on Debra where two former cops will fight against each other. While it will be a political debut for Kabir, Ghosh had contested from Ghatal in the Lok Sabha elections.

“I am banking on the development done by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the last 10 years. This is election time — so I have to fight against someone or the other. There will be other candidates too, so this [my contest against Bharati Ghsh] is not relevant . I would just say ‘khela hobe’ (the game is on) in a democratic way,” Kabir told Indian Express after BJP fielded Bharati Ghosh from Debra. Humayun Kabir, who was Commissioner of Chandannagar police commissionerate, recently quit his service and joined TMC months before his retirement which was due in April.

On the other hand, former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh,  who had once described Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the “mother” of the former Maoist-dominated areas of Bengal, had resigned at the end of 2017 after being transferred to a less significant post and faced CID investigation on charges of extortion. She later returned a medal and a certificate that she had received for commendable services from the state government on August 15, 2014.

Ghosh joined BJP in New Delhi on February 4, 2019.

 Why the two will fight from Debra  

Ghosh, a BJP leader said, “was the unquestionable ruler of West Midnapore”. She was the police chief of West Midnapore and Jhargram, all Junglemahal territory. Debra is situated in West Midnapore.

On the other hand, Humayun Kabir’s hometown is Debra, and his parents Arsed Ali and Jinatun Begum still stay in Debra constituency. Therefore, Kabir knows the area very well.

In 2016, this constituency was won by the TMC. The total percentage of voters in Debra Assembly Constituency was recorded as 89 per cent.

In 2016, Selima Khatun (Bibi) of TMC had won the seat by defeating Jahangir Karim Sk from CPI(M) by a margin of 11,908 votes.

Debra comes under Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency.

In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, All India Trinamool Congress candidate Adhikari Deepak (Dev) had won from the Ghatal seat by a margin of 1,07,973 votes by defeating BJP’s Bharati Ghosh.