A potato crisis brewing across several districts of West Bengal has emerged as a major challenge for the ruling Trinamool Congress and its leader Mamata Banerjee. Observers say it could impact the Assembly elections, with nearly one million potato growers and over 40 lakh voters affected.West Bengal is the second largest producer of potato in India after Uttar Pradesh. Potato is grown in nine of the 23 districts — Hooghly, Purva Bardhhaman, Paschim Bardhhaman, Paschim Medinipur, Purva Medinipur, Howrah, Bankura, Purulia and Nadia. Cooch Behar in North Bengal is also a producer.Hooghly is considered to be the potato hub, though Bardhhaman and Medinipur districts are also big producers of the crop. Most of these districts fall in South Bengal that is considered Mamata’s stronghold.Nearly 14-15 million tonnes of potato are produced in 2025-2026 which is 20 per cent more than last year’s produce. However, most farmers have been forced to sell the product between Rs 4 and Rs 5 per kg — an extremely low price.The brewing crisis is due to the ‘bumper crop’ this year that has led to a huge surplus of potato in the market. As a result, potato farmers got a price that was far below their expectation and also too meagre to cover the production cost.Many farmers spent Rs 30,000 per bigha (approximately 14,400 sq ft) to cultivate potatoes, but received only Rs 200 per quintal for their produce. Most had taken large loans from moneylenders before the sowing season and have now incurred heavy debts, adding to their growing despair over the lack of any viable solution to their problem.Many growers have allowed the crop to lie in the field and rot, refusing to pick the crop and take it to cold storages since this meant incurring additional investment that they are not in a position to afford. The conducive climate in West Bengal has led to an increase in potato production and this year there has been a substantial growth in the crop.Potatoes are sown from the beginning of November to the end of the month. A number of varieties of potato are grown in West Bengal — Jyoti, Himanggini, Pokhraj, Chandramukhi, S-6 and K-22. The Jyoti variety of potato is the most popular and fetches the best price in the market.Farmers blame Mamata for the crisis. Her sudden change in the export policy of potato has been a major contributor to the current crisis. Earlier, potato growers from the state could export their products to neighbouring states like Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. This gave them a much higher price than what they got in the domestic market.But the state government brought an end to potato export some years ago when a potato shortage hit the domestic market. The restrictions were released once the production increased to take care of the domestic demand. However, due to erratic supplies from Bengal, most of the states, where potato was being exported, took measures to meet the demand in their respective states by either getting potato from elsewhere or growing the crop in their own state.The West Bengal farmers who invested heavily in the crop in the hope of selling the surplus outside Bengal found their markets no longer existed. As a result, there has been a huge surplus of potato now in the West Bengal domestic market.Mamata has announced a number of measures to deal with the crisis. But most potato growers remain sceptical on how effective they will be in clearing their mounting debt and fetching their product a price that will help recover their cost.