Khardaha Assembly Election 2024

Khardaha was a truly Left fortress for nearly 60 years, and appeared impregnable until the Trinamool Congress succeeded in breaching it. Of late, it has become a Trinamool Congress stronghold with the party winning four Assembly elections and leading in four parliamentary polls, and remaining undefeated for the past 26 years.

Khardaha has its own municipality, originally established in 1877 as South Barrackpore and renamed Khardaha Municipality in 1920. It has participated in 17 Assembly elections since its inception in 1957, including the 2021 by-election. While the Praja Socialist Party won the inaugural 1957 election, the Left rule started soon thereafter with the undivided CPI winning in 1962, followed by 11 consecutive victories of the CPI(M). Trinamool Congress has held this seat four times, including the 2021 by-election.

Khardaha turned into a battleground between two economists in 2011. The Trinamool Congress fielded Dr. Amit Mitra as its nominee against Dr. Asim Dasgupta, who had won five consecutive terms and was serving as the state’s Finance Minister since 1987. Mitra won the clash of titans by defeating Dasgupta by 26,154 votes. Mitra replaced Dasgupta both as Khardaha’s MLA and Finance Minister of West Bengal, the post he held until 2021 before being appointed as Special Advisor (Finance) to the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Mitra retained the seat in 2016, defeating Dasgupta again, though by a reduced margin of 21,200 votes. The 2021 elections had neither of them in the fray, as the Trinamool Congress fielded Kajal Sinha as its candidate and the CPI(M)’s nominee was Debojyoti Das, who ended up finishing a distant third. The BJP, with Shilbhadra Dutt as its candidate, emerged as the principal challenger, and the Trinamool’s victory margin increased to 28,140 votes.

Kajal Sinha, however, died just days before the results were declared due to COVID-19, leading to the by-election in which Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, a cabinet minister and one of the founders of the Trinamool Congress, won, defeating the BJP’s Joy Saha by a huge margin of 93,832 votes. Chattopadhyay had originally won the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency, the traditional seat of Mamata Banerjee, in 2021. However, Banerjee’s defeat in Nandigram led to Chattopadhyay vacating the seat for her and contesting from Khardaha.

Voting trends in the Khardaha Assembly segment during the Lok Sabha elections mirror the growing hold of the Trinamool Congress in this region. It led the CPI(M) by a narrow margin of 1,451 votes in 2009, which surged to 31,478 votes in 2014. The BJP replaced CPI(M) as the main challenger and managed to give a close contest in 2019, with the Trinamool’s lead declining to mere 1,268 votes. The Trinamool Congress’s lead increased to 10,972 votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in this segment.

The Khardaha Assembly constituency had 257,593 voters on the draft electoral roll following the 2025 Special Intensive Revision released on December 15, 2025, witnessing an increase of 16,921 voters compared to 240,672 registered voters it had in 2024. Previously, it stood at 232,619 in 2021, 217,181 in 2019, 204,874 in 2016 and 169,661 in 2011. Scheduled Castes form the largest bloc with 14.93 per cent of voters, while Scheduled Tribes account for 1.71 per cent and Muslims 12.80 per cent of the electorate. It is an overwhelmingly urban seat with 88.91 per cent city voters on its rolls and 11.09 per cent voters living in villages. The voter turnout has remained on the higher side, witnessing a gradual decline though, with 87.23 per cent in 2011, 82.33 per cent in 2016, 80.92 per cent in 2019, 78.76 per cent in 2021, and 78.72 per cent in 2024.

Khardaha lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River in the flat alluvial plains typical of the Kolkata metropolitan fringe. The area is densely populated and urbanised. Historically an industrial township, Khardaha grew around jute mills and related heavy engineering units. The Khardah Jute Mill, a major landmark, was nationalised in 1980 under the National Jute Manufactures Corporation Limited, closed in 2004, and reopened in 2011 after revival efforts, though parts of the industry have faced challenges. Other industries include chemicals, textile machinery and small-scale manufacturing. The economy now blends industrial remnants with service sector jobs, commuting to Kolkata, and urban trade, supporting a largely middle-class population.

Infrastructure is well-developed for an urban suburb. Connectivity is strong via suburban trains on the Sealdah-Ranaghat section, with Khardaha railway station dividing the town (eastern part known as Rahara). Barrackpore Trunk Road (BT Road) provides excellent road access. Frequent buses connect to various parts of Kolkata, including Esplanade, Howrah Station and Barasat.

Barrackpore is at about 5 to 7 km, Panihati and Titagarh at 3 to 5 km, Dum Dum at around 10 km, Barasat, the district headquarters, is at 12 to 15 km, and central Kolkata landmarks like Shyambazar or Esplanade are at 18 to 20 km. Howrah is about 25 to 30 km via bridges, Hooghly towns like Chinsurah, around 30 km, and the South 24 Parganas areas farther south beyond Kolkata.

The post-SIR draft roll is likely to remain more or less unchanged as none are contesting it. Anyway, it is unlikely to have any impact on the outcome of Khardaha since the BJP, despite its best efforts, still has miles to go before it can catch up with the Trinamool Congress. Considering it is a Trinamool Congress bastion, the BJP does have an outside chance of causing an upset victory if it can field a prominent face as its candidate and weave a convincing anti-Trinamool narrative locally. Trinamool Congress has to remain on guard and wary of the BJP’s growing foothold here. The Left Front-Congress alliance is down but not out. Its further revival can change the electoral calculus. Khardaha is set to witness a triangular contest with the Trinamool Congress enjoying a clear edge.

(Ajay Jha)