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Who is Tapasi Mondal, TMC’s Haldia pick who retained seat despite party switches in two consecutive polls
Tapasi Mondal profile highlights her rare feat of retaining Haldia seat despite switching parties across two elections, showcasing strong local voter connect.
Tapasi Mondal has retained the Haldia Assembly seat despite switching parties across elections. (Express Photo)
In Purba Medinipur district, considered a stronghold of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, Tapasi Mondal has emerged as an outlier, crafting a political journey that was shaped less by ideological consistency and more by electoral gain.
Despite switching political affiliations over two consecutive state elections, the incumbent Haldia MLA has managed to hold on to her Assembly seat.
In 2016, representing the CPI(M) in Haldia, a SC-reserved seat, Mondal stood as a fierce critic of the ruling TMC and at a time when the Left was losing ground, she managed to secure a win by a significant margin of 21,000 votes, trouncing her primary opponent and TMC candidate Madhurima Mandal and positioning herself as the voice of the industrial worker.
She went on to join the BJP in 2020, saying she wanted to fight the TMC and its politics. Adhikari, too, had joined the party around that time after falling out with TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee. In the 2021 state polls, Mondal retained her seat by defeating TMC’s Swapan Naskar by 15,000 votes.
Last year in March, in a major blow to the BJP, Mondal defected to TMC, which fielded her from the seat for the upcoming Assembly elections.
“I am a person who stands for the people all the time. I am very much connected to the voters. Also the people of Haldia will vote for development works done by Mamata Banerjee,” Mondal told The Indian Express.
A local voter said the TMC nominating Mondal from Haldia can be seen as its effort to break the BJP’s hold in Purba Medinipur.
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“Tapasi Mondal’s nomination from Haldia is crucial because the area continues to remain a stronghold for the Adhikari family. By fielding her, the TMC is banking on her local influence and recent public fallout with BJP leaders like Suvendu Adhikari and Abhijit Gangopadhyay to help flip the local narrative in their favour. Interestingly, while she has switched parties twice, she has remained loyal to the Haldia seat, making her a local constant in a shifting political landscape,” a teacher, who is also a voter from Haldia, said on condition of anonymity.
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