Bardhaman Uttar constituency, created in 1967 after the old Bardhaman Assembly seat was bifurcated, is located in Purba Bardhaman district and consists of the entire Burdwan II community development block, along with seven gram panchayats of the Burdwan I block. It is one of the seven Assembly segments under the Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat. Before the split, the Communist Party of India won the first two Assembly elections from the undivided Bardhaman seat, with the Congress party breaking its run in 1962.
Since its formation, Bardhaman Uttar has gone to the polls in 14 Assembly elections. Despite changes in its name, category and composition, the larger-than-life presence of the Left remained intact for decades, with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) winning the seat 11 times, including an unbroken streak of eight victories from 1977 to 2011. The Congress party’s only win came in 1972, while the Trinamool Congress has captured the seat in the last two elections held in 2016 and 2021.
Aparna Saha of the CPI(M) was the last Left Front leader to represent Bardhaman Uttar. She won in 2011 by defeating Nishit Kumar Malik of the Trinamool Congress by 14,233 votes. The same two candidates faced off again in 2016, but this time Nishit Kumar Malik prevailed, defeating Saha by 11,505 votes to give the Trinamool Congress its first win here. Malik retained the seat in 2021, beating the BJP’s Radha Kanta Roy by an increased margin of 17,268 votes, which confirmed Trinamool’s hold and the BJP’s arrival as the principal challenger.
The delayed bloom of the Trinamool Congress and the BJP has been evident in the Lok Sabha polls, in the Bardhaman Uttar Assembly segment. Riding its long unbeaten run, the CPI(M) led the Congress by 28,441 votes here in 2009. The Trinamool Congress announced its arrival in 2014, when it opened up a lead of 21,666 votes over the CPI(M). The BJP, which had finished a distant third with 4.15 per cent and 11.84 per cent of votes in the 2009 and 2014 parliamentary elections, surged to second place in 2019 with 36 per cent of the vote, though it still trailed the Trinamool Congress by 28,046 votes. By 2024, Trinamool’s lead over the BJP widened further to 41,245 votes, underlining its current advantage in the segment.
Bardhaman Uttar lies in the Bardhaman Plain, the central alluvial tract of the district, framed by three major rivers: the Bhagirathi to the east, the Ajay to the northwest, and the Damodar to the west and south. The terrain is mostly flat and fertile, made up of recent alluvial soil that is ideal for intensive agriculture but is sometimes prone to flooding during heavy monsoon rains and river spills. Old river channels and small creeks run through parts of the region and tend to dry up in the lean season, while irrigation canals and tube wells support multiple crops each year.
Agriculture dominates the local economy, with paddy, potato and oilseeds as key crops, backed by a well-developed irrigation network and canal system. A large share of the workforce is engaged as agricultural labourers and cultivators, although the secondary and tertiary sectors have slowly expanded with small industries, services, trade and transport linked to Bardhaman town and the broader industrial belt of Durgapur and Asansol. The block enjoys relatively good infrastructure for rural Bengal, including pucca approach roads to many villages, bus services, banking facilities and access to agricultural credit and markets.
Road and rail connectivity place Bardhaman Uttar at a strategic nodal point in south central Bengal. Bardhaman town, the district headquarters, lies within the constituency and is linked by major highways and the Howrah-Bardhaman main and chord railway lines to Kolkata and Durgapur. The distance from Bardhaman to Durgapur is around 60 to 65 km by road and rail. Kolkata lies roughly 100 to 105 km to the southeast by rail from Bardhaman Junction and a similar distance by road along the old Grand Trunk Road and national highways, with frequent trains connecting to Howrah and Sealdah.
Nearby towns and growth centres such as Mankar, Memari, Galsi and Manteswar fall within a radius of about 20 to 50 km from Bardhaman, tied to it by state highways and rural roads. Further out, Asansol lies roughly 120 to 130 km away, and key towns in adjoining districts such as Bolpur in Birbhum and Arambagh in Hooghly are also within a broad 70 to 110 km band, which keeps Bardhaman Uttar connected to education, health and industrial hubs across central West Bengal.
Bardhaman Uttar had 285,247 registered voters in 2024, compared to 277,026 in 2021, 262,004 in 2019, 245,749 in 2016 and 211,206 in 2011. The Scheduled Castes form the largest group of voters, at 33.76 per cent in this SC-reserved seat, while the Scheduled Tribes account for 8.52 per cent and Muslims for about 21 per cent of the electorate. It is predominantly rural, with 85.93 per cent of voters living in villages and 14.07 per cent in urban pockets. Voter turnout has remained robust and high, standing at 91.38 per cent in 2011, 88.35 per cent in 2016, 86.47 per cent in 2019 and 87.33 per cent in 2021.
The Trinamool Congress has, in a relatively short time, turned Bardhaman Uttar into a bastion, establishing substantial leads in all five major elections since 2014, both in Assembly contests and in this Assembly segment during the Lok Sabha polls. The Left Front-Congress alliance has declined sharply and no longer poses a serious threat here, while the BJP, despite emerging as the main challenger, has yet to reach a stage where it can mount a sustained challenge to Trinamool’s dominance. Barring an unexpected shift, which cannot be ruled out in politics, the Trinamool Congress has good reason to feel it is favourably placed to retain the Bardhaman Uttar seat in the 2026 Assembly elections.
(Ajay Jha)
