Chandannagar, a general category Assembly constituency, was created in 1957 and it soon turned into a Left bastion, with the CPI and later the CPI(M) dominating for over three decades. In recent years, the ruling Trinamool Congress has made it its own stronghold, winning all the last seven major elections.
A satellite town of Kolkata, Chandannagar is a subdivision headquarters in Hooghly district and part of the Kolkata metropolitan area, with its own municipal corporation. The constituency is one of the seven segments of the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat and is made up of the Chandannagar Municipal Corporation and Bhadreswar Municipality, giving it an entirely urban character.
Chandannagar has gone to the polls 16 times since 1957. It was known as the Chandannagore constituency till 2006, before the name was standardised as Chandannagar. In this period, the Left won 10 times, including nine victories by the CPI(M) and one by the undivided CPI in 1962. The Trinamool has three wins, the Congress has two, and an Independent took the inaugural 1957 contest. CPI(M) leader Bhabani Mukherjee represented the seat for seven straight terms between 1962 and 1991.
The renaming coincided with a change in political fortunes. In 2011, Ashoke Kumar Shaw of the Trinamool Congress defeated sitting CPI(M) MLA Siba Prosad Mukhopadhyay by 43,039 votes to open the party’s account here. He narrowly retained the seat in 2016 by 2,114 votes over CPI(M)’s Gautam Sarkar before the party switched to Indranil Sen in 2021. Sen justified the move as he defeated BJP’s Deepanjan Kumar Guha by 31,029 votes. The BJP’s vote share jumped from 7.83 per cent in 2016 to 30.60 per cent and the CPI(M)’s collapsed by over 25 percentage points.
The Trinamool has also held the upper hand in the Chandannagar Assembly segment in all four Lok Sabha polls since 2009. It led the CPI(M) by 20,530 votes in 2009 and 25,163 votes in 2014. The BJP has since emerged as the main challenger, cutting the Trinamool’s lead to 2,875 votes in 2019 and 6,464 votes in 2024.
Chandannagar had 207,932 voters in the draft roll for the 2026 elections after an SIR exercise in December 2025, registering a sharp fall from 234,688 voters in 2024. The electorate earlier stood at 229,572 in 2021, 222,841 in 2019, 214,035 in 2016 and 200,388 in 2011. Scheduled Castes make up 12.73 per cent of voters, and Muslims about 9.50 per cent. The turnout has stayed in the high 70s with 79.20 per cent in 2011, 78.96 per cent in 2016, 77.02 per cent in 2019 and 79.40 per cent in 2021.
The French first obtained permission to set up a trading post at Chandannagar on the Hooghly’s right bank in the 1670s, and the settlement became a permanent French colony by the late 17th century. It grew into an important French centre under governors like Joseph Dupleix, was repeatedly contested between French and British forces in the 18th century and remained part of French India until the mid-20th century, when a 1949 plebiscite paved the way for de facto Indian control in 1950 and de jure transfer in 1952.
Today, Chandannagar is known for its riverside Strand, with its Indo-French mansions and the Durgacharan Rakshit Ghat, the Duplex Museum and the Sacred Heart Church among the main reminders of its colonial past. It also draws visitors for its Jagatdhatri Puja, riverfront promenade and old quarters that retain a distinct urban texture compared to nearby Bengali towns.
The town stands on the western bank of the Hooghly River on relatively flat alluvial terrain. It forms part of the larger Hooghly urban and industrial belt. Its economy is mixed, with small industries, services, trading establishments and educational institutions. Tourism, linked to its heritage and riverfront, also plays a role. Many residents commute to Kolkata and other parts of the metropolitan area for work.
Chandannagar lies roughly 35 to 45 km from Kolkata, depending on the entry point. It is well connected by the Grand Trunk Road and Delhi Road corridors, and the Chandannagar railway station on the Howrah-Bardhaman main line provides frequent suburban trains to Howrah and onward connections to Kolkata and the larger rail network.
Within Hooghly district, the town is about 20 km from the district headquarters at Chinsurah and sits in the same urban-industrial belt as Bhadreswar, Uttarpara, Serampore and Konnagar, all within a 10 to 30 km radius. Nearby urban centres across district boundaries include Howrah city across the river system, while the northern fringes of North 24 Parganas and the river-facing stretches of South 24 Parganas fall within the wider commuting and economic orbit of the Kolkata metropolitan area to which Chandannagar belongs.
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For the 2026 contest, history is clearly on the side of the Trinamool Congress, which has led in all seven major elections held here since 2009. Yet it cannot afford to ignore the rising BJP, which has been running it close in recent Lok Sabha contests and appears to be one strong push away from seriously threatening the Trinamool’s hold.
The sharp fall in voter numbers after the recent roll revision could also make the fight tighter, as every vote is likely to matter more in a constituency where margins may narrow and where the Left Front-Congress alliance shows signs of a modest revival. All these points lead to a contest in Chandannagar where the Trinamool starts ahead but faces a more searching test than the raw history of straight wins would suggest.
(Ajay Jha)
