Katulpur Assembly Election 2024

Established in 1957, Katulpur began as a general category seat and was reserved for the Scheduled Castes in 2006 on the basis of the 2001 census. The constituency covers six gram panchayats of Kotulpur and nine gram panchayats of the Joypur community development blocks, and is one of the seven segments under the Bishnupur Lok Sabha constituency.

Katulpur has gone to the Assembly elections 17 times since its formation, including the 2014 by-election. The CPI(M) has won the maximum eight terms, including seven consecutive victories between 1977 and 2006, while the Congress has taken the seat four times. The now-defunct Bangla Congress and the Trinamool Congress, both offshoots of the Congress, have won it twice each, with the BJP opening its account once.

The shifting loyalty of Katulpur voters is evident in the recent pattern of three different parties winning the last three Assembly contests. In 2011, Soumitra Khan of the Congress won by a slender margin of 1,433 votes over CPI(M)’s Purnima Bagdi. He later defected to the Trinamool Congress and resigned as MLA after winning the Bishnupur Lok Sabha seat in 2014 as a Trinamool nominee. In the by-election that followed, Shyamal Santra retained the seat for the Trinamool Congress by defeating CPI(M)’s Sital Kaibartya by 40,357 votes. He held it again in 2016, beating Akshay Santra of the Congress by a reduced margin of 21,248 votes before the BJP’s Harakali Protiher shocked the Trinamool in 2021 with a win by 11,785 votes, only to cross over to the Trinamool in October 2023.

Protiher’s defection did not immediately dislodge the BJP from the top position in the Katulpur Assembly segment in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP, which had led the Trinamool by 9,099 votes in 2019, still retained a lead of 6,331 votes in 2024. The previous two Lok Sabha polls had seen leads flip, with the CPI(M) ahead of the Trinamool by 28,475 votes in 2009 before the Trinamool turned the tables in 2014 with a lead of 41,080 votes over the CPI(M).

Katulpur had 255,312 voters in the draft roll for the 2026 elections after the SIR exercise to remove illegal immigrants, duplicates, dead voters and those who have migrated, which is a marginal increase from 254,682 voters in 2024. The electorate earlier stood at 246,785 in 2021, 236,294 in 2019, 220,142 in 2016 and 190,151 in 2011. Scheduled Castes form the most dominant bloc at 35.39 per cent, Scheduled Tribes at 2.81 per cent and Muslims account for 15.50 per cent of the voters. The turnout has been exceptionally high at 92.50 per cent in 2011, 90.70 per cent in 2016, 89.25 per cent in 2019 and 90.80 per cent in 2021.

Kotulpur lies in the eastern part of the Bankura district, which has historically been linked to the rise and fall of the Hindu Rajas of Bishnupur and later became part of Bankura when the thanas of Sonamukhi, Kotulpur and Indas were transferred from Burdwan in the late 19th century. The wider region’s history is closely tied to the Bishnupur kingdom’s temple-building and cultural traditions, traces of which survive in scattered terracotta temples and old structures around Kotulpur and neighbouring areas of Bankura.

Geographically, Katulpur falls in the part of Bankura that links the alluvial plains of Bengal in the east with the rising Chota Nagpur Plateau in the west. The terrain here is relatively flat to gently undulating, with fertile alluvial tracts and some lateritic patches. The district is drained by rivers such as the Damodar, Dwarakeswar, Shilabati and Kangsabati, which support paddy and other crops.

The local economy around Kotulpur is driven largely by agriculture, allied activities and rural trade. Small markets and haats in and around Kotulpur serve surrounding villages, while many residents commute to larger centres in Bankura and adjoining districts for work in services, construction and small industries.

Kotulpur is the headquarters of the Kotulpur community development block and is linked by road to Bishnupur, Bankura and other towns through district and state roads. Bankura town, the district headquarters, is about 67 km away by road. Bishnupur, the subdivision headquarters, is about 30 km away. Kolkata, the state capital, is roughly 105 km away. Nearby towns within Bankura and adjoining districts include Sonamukhi, about 60 km away, Joypur and Indas at roughly 25 to 35 km, and Arambagh across the district border in Hooghly at around 30 km, all of which fall within the catchment area for employment, higher education and healthcare for Katulpur residents.

The nearest rail access comes through nearby stations such as Indas and Sahaspur Road, both around 19 km away, and Arambagh P C Sen in Hooghly district, about 27 km away, from where passengers connect to the Howrah-Bardhaman and other mainline routes to reach Kolkata and other hubs.

The BJP goes into the 2026 Assembly elections with an edge over the Trinamool Congress, having led in all of the last three contests in the Katulpur segment. The Trinamool, however, will back itself to close the gap, banking on the presence of the 2021 BJP MLA now on its side and the fact that it trailed the BJP in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls by manageable vote-share gaps of 4.30 and 2.80 percentage points.

Even a marginal revival of the Left Front-Congress alliance could nibble at the Trinamool’s base, making this a three-cornered contest, even if the seat remains primarily a BJP versus Trinamool fight. This sets up Katulpur as one of those constituencies where another low-margin, knife-edge result looks likely and where candidate selection, outreach to SC voters and local narratives may matter more than state-level swings.

(Ajay Jha)