Kolkata, April 27 -- In West Bengal's political imagination, Bhabanipur is no longer just another south Kolkata assembly seat. It is Mamata Banerjee's political refuge and home turf, the BJP's chosen psychological battlefield, where the stage is set for what many in Bengal are calling the "mother of all electoral contests". With Banerjee, the chief minister and three-term MLA from the constituency, locked in a direct contest with Leader of Opposition and BJP heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari, the April 29 election has turned Bhabanipur into the state's most closely watched prestige fight. Bhabanipur is effectively bracing for a symbolic rematch of Nandigram, where Adhikari defeated Banerjee, his once political mentor, in 2021 after quitting the TMC and joining the BJP. Five years later, the duel has shifted to Banerjee's own bastion. For the TMC, retaining Bhabanipur is about protecting the chief minister's political authority in her own backyard. For the BJP, breaching it would mean puncturing the aura of invincibility around Bengal's most powerful leader. Around 42% of voters are Bengali Hindus, 34% non-Bengali Hindus and nearly 24% Muslims, making the constituency socially diverse and politically sensitive. It is precisely this arithmetic that appears to have encouraged Adhikari to challenge Banerjee on her home turf. For months, the BJP has mapped Bhabanipur booth by booth. Party leaders claim Kayasthas make up 26.2% of the electorate, Muslims 24.5%, eastern Indian migrant communities 14.9%, Marwaris 10.4% and Brahmins 7.6%. The exercise, party insiders said, helped identify where Bengali Hindus dominate, where Hindi-speaking trader communities are concentrated, and which booths are likely to be influenced by Muslim voters, turning the constituency into a finely calibrated caste-community contest rather than a conventional urban seat. Its political history mirrors Bengal's own transformation. Once a Congress citadel represented by heavyweights like Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Bhabanipur disappeared after delimitation in 1972 and was revived only in 2011, the year Banerjee ended the Left Front's 34-year rule. Her close aide Subrata Bakshi first won the seat, vacated it, and Banerjee entered the assembly through the bypoll that effectively became her coronation as an MLA after being sworn in as chief minister. She retained the seat in 2016. In 2021, she shifted to Nandigram but, after losing to Suvendu Adhikari by 1,956 votes, returned to the assembly through the Bhabanipur bypoll, defeating BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal by more than 58,000 votes. That history explains why within the TMC, Bhabanipur is viewed not merely as a safe seat, but as Banerjee's political insurance....