Established in 1951, Balagarh began as a general category seat and was reserved for the Scheduled Castes from the 1977 election onwards. It has voted in all 17 Assembly elections held in the state, along with a by-election in 2007. CPI(M) has been the most successful party here, winning 10 of the 18 contests, including eight consecutive victories between 1977 and 2007, while Congress has won four times, Trinamool Congress three times and the undivided CPI once in 1957.тАЛ
Trinamool Congress opened its account in Balagarh in 2011, the year it came to power in the state, when Ashim Kumar Majhi defeated sitting CPI(M) MLA Bhuban Pramanick by 21,583 votes. Majhi retained the seat in 2016, beating CPI(M)тАЩs Panchu Gopal Mondal by 17,837 votes. Trinamool recorded its third successive win in 2021 with a new face, writer-activist Manoranjan Byapari, who defeated BJPтАЩs Subhash Chandra Haldar by 5,784 votes, as CPI(M)тАЩs vote share collapsed to 8.99 per cent, compared to 43 per cent for the BJP and 45.63 per cent for Trinamool Congress.тАЛ
Lok Sabha voting in the Balagarh segment reflects the BJPтАЩs rise from the margins. Trinamool Congress dominated in 2009 and 2014, leading CPI(M) by 20,848 votes and 14,858 votes respectively. In 2019, the BJP surged ahead and led Trinamool by 34,054 votes, while CPI(M) fell to 7.21 per cent of the vote. In 2024, the BJP again finished on top here with a lead of 5,947 votes over Trinamool, and CPI(M) remained a distant third on about 7 per cent of the vote, underlining its marginalisation in a former stronghold.тАЛ
Balagarh had 263,064 registered voters in 2024, up from 258,955 in 2021 and 249,226 in 2019. Scheduled Castes are the dominant group, accounting for 40.44 per cent of voters, while Scheduled Tribes account for 8.87 per cent and Muslims for 9.60 per cent of the electorate. It is an overwhelmingly rural seat, with 80.64 per cent of voters living in villages and 19.36 per cent in urban pockets. The voter turnout has been both high and steady, at 84.40 per cent in 2011, 85.66 per cent in 2016, 84.54 per cent in 2019, 85.19 per cent in 2021 and 83.42 per cent in 2024.тАЛ
Balagarh lies in the Hooghly Flats region of Hooghly district, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River in southern West Bengal. The terrain is part of the flat alluvial plains of the lower Ganga basin, with fertile soils that support paddy, jute and vegetable cultivation, and the river adds both to its agricultural potential and to periodic flood risks. The local economy depends heavily on agriculture, country boat building and small-scale tile and brick manufacture, with BalagarhтАЩs wooden country boats in particular having a long-standing reputation and even being considered for geographical indication (GI) recognition.тАЛ
Balagarh is linked by road and rail to the rest of the Hooghly district and the wider Kolkata region. Chinsurah, the district headquarters, is about 29 km away by rail, as the Balagarh-Chuchura rail distance is 29 km on the Bandel-Katwa section of Eastern Railway. Chinsurah and the nearby urban nodes of Bandel and Hooghly are all reachable within roughly an hour by train or road, integrating Balagarh into the lower Hooghly urban-rural corridor. Kolkata lies roughly 70 to 90 km to the south, accessed via Bandel and the Howrah-Bardhaman main line and the state highway network, which keeps the constituency within feasible commuting and trading distance from the state capital while preserving its largely rural character.тАЛ
Balagarh is set up for a close and engaging contest in the 2026 Assembly election, with both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP running almost parallel to each other after their recent performances. The BJP has grown stronger here and has led the segment in the last two Lok Sabha polls, while Trinamool Congress still holds the Assembly seat, though by a much slimmer margin than in 2011 and 2016. The Left Front-Congress alliance has shrunk to the margins and is unlikely to be a decisive factor. The outcome may hinge on a late push in the campaign and organisation, which will determine whether Trinamool manages to retain Balagarh or the BJP finally opens its account in this Scheduled Caste-reserved constituency.
(Ajay Jha)
