The United News of India (UNI) has been candid about the second largest city and urban agglomeration in West Bengal after Kolkata that is a hub of coal mining and railway activity bordering Jharkhand. Asansol has seen, it writes, “a sustained hold over it by the CPI(M) since 1984 (1989?). Before that it was a tale of fluctuating fortune for the CPI(M) and the Congress… However, as the green surge swept Bengal to demolish the red bastion in 2011 Assembly elections… Moreover, as the Left still remained cornered in state politics, their neutralised voters are increasingly migrating to the BJP for a viable alternative.”