Sitai Assembly Election 2024

Established in 1967, the constituency has participated in 15 Assembly elections so far, including the by-election in 2024. It swung back and forth between the Congress party and the Forward Bloc before Trinamool Congress established its sway.

The Congress party and the Forward Bloc won the seat four terms each consecutively in the eight elections held between 1967 and 1991. This sequence was broken by Dr. Md. Fazle Haque, who had previously won all four elections for the Congress party, as an Independent after being denied nomination by the party. He won the seat once more in 2006, this time for the Congress party, making him the most successful politician with six victories to his name. Party-wise, the Congress party held the seat six times, the Forward Bloc five times, and the Trinamool Congress thrice, including the 2024 by-election.

In 2011, the Congress party, which contested elections as a junior ally to the Trinamool Congress, won the seat with its nominee Keshab Chandra Ray defeating Forward Bloc’s Dipak Kumar Roy by a narrow margin of 1,577 votes. The Trinamool Congress won the Sitai seat in 2016 after dissolving the alliance, with its candidate Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia defeating the sitting MLA Keshab Chandra Ray of the Congress party by 25,251 votes. Trinamool Congress retained the seat in 2021 as Basunia defeated Dipak Kumar Roy, who had switched over from the Forward Bloc to the BJP, by 10,112 votes. Basunia’s death led to the 2024 by-election in which Sangita Roy of the Trinamool Congress emerged winner. Dipak Kumar Roy, who was renominated by the BJP, finished second once again as the Trinamool Congress won by a huge margin of 130,636 votes.

Voting trends during the Lok Sabha elections in the Sitai Assembly segment reflect the Trinamool Congress consolidating its hold after the Forward Bloc led over it in 2009 by 10,650 votes. Since 2014, Sitai has witnessed a one-way traffic with the Trinamool Congress leading in the next three parliamentary polls with comfortable margins. It led the Forward Bloc by 12,321 votes in 2014, over the BJP by 34,661 votes in 2019, and by 28,377 votes in 2024.

The Sitai Assembly constituency had 291,421 voters on the draft electoral roll following the 2025 Special Intensive Revision released on December 15, 2025, witnessing a decline of 12,817 voters compared to 304,238 registered voters it had in 2024. Previously, it stood at 290,568 in 2021, 276,958 in 2019, 262,565 in 2016 and 209,580 in 2011. Scheduled Castes form the majority bloc with 50.56 per cent, while Muslims also form a significant group with 38.10 per cent of the electorate. It is a purely rural seat with no urban voters on its rolls. The voter turnout has remained on the higher side with 81.56 per cent recorded in 2011, 83.14 per cent in 2016, 81.15 per cent in 2019, 82.19 per cent in 2021, and 78.63 per cent in 2024.

Sitai lies in the flat alluvial plains of the eastern Himalayan foothills in the Terai region of North Bengal, with low-lying marshy terrain in several places and a gentle southeastwardly slope. The area is prone to flooding and silt deposition due to the river network. Major rivers such as Jaldhaka, Singimari, Giridhari and tributaries of Teesta and Torsha flow through or near the area from northwest to southeast. These Himalayan rivers frequently change course, carry silt, causing seasonal floods and erosion. The soils are loose sandy loam fertile from alluvial deposits but prone to waterlogging.

The economy depends almost entirely on agriculture, with rice, jute, potatoes, vegetables, pulses, wheat, maize, and cash crops like coconut, areca nut and betel leaf being the main produce. Pisciculture also provides some livelihood. Infrastructure is basic and rural, with electricity and drinking water in all villages, but limited pucca roads, transport, communication and banking facilities. The nearest railway station is at Dinhata about 27 km away across the Jaldhaka River, often requiring a ferry crossing. Bus routes and ferry services exist, but connectivity remains limited.

Nearby towns include Dinhata, the subdivision headquarters, at 27 to 28 km, Cooch Behar, the district headquarters, at 34 km, Mathabhanga at about 36 km, Sitalkuchi at about 23 km, Tufanganj at 55 km, Alipurduar, at around 60 km, and the state capital Kolkata, at 700 to 750 km. Sitai lies very close to the Indo-Bangladesh border, with parts of the Sitai community development block directly bordering the Lalmonirhat district of Bangladesh to the south and west. The international border runs along or very near the block, often just a few km from villages separated in places by rivers like Jaldhaka or Dharla. This proximity has led to concerns over illegal infiltration by Bangladeshi nationals, along with smuggling of cattle and contraband in riverine or unfenced stretches.

If the post-SIR draft roll remains more or less unchanged when the final electoral roll is published, it will have some impact since the number of deleted voters is greater than the Trinamool Congress’s victory margin of 2021. However, it would not be the deciding factor and would only reduce the margin between victory and defeat. The Left Front-Congress alliance has become politically irrelevant here and stands marginalised to the extent of fighting to save its security deposit. The contest in the 2026 Assembly elections would be a direct fight between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP. The BJP's hopes of turning the tables on the Trinamool Congress would hinge on its ability to penetrate deeper into the dominant Scheduled Caste voters.

(Ajay Jha)