Established in 1951, Falta has participated in all 17 Assembly elections held so far in West Bengal. The CPI(M) has won the seat eight times, while the undivided CPI won the inaugural election in 1952. The Congress and the Trinamool Congress have registered four victories each.
The Trinamool Congress first captured this seat in 2001, within three years of its formation in 1998, winning by a narrow margin of 2,138 votes over the CPI(M). The CPI(M) regained the seat in 2006 by a margin of only 1,754 votes over the Trinamool Congress. Since 2011, however, the Trinamool has not looked back, securing three consecutive victories.
Tamonash Ghosh, who had won Falta for the Trinamool Congress in 2001, ended the phase of wafer-thin margins in 2011 when he defeated the CPI(M)’s Ardhendu Shekhar Bindu by 27,671 votes. He retained the seat in 2016, defeating the CPI(M)’s Bidhan Parui by 23,580 votes. Ghosh died in 2020 due to COVID-19-related complications, prompting the Trinamool to field Shankar Kumar Naskar in the 2021 election. Naskar defeated Bidhan Parui, who had switched from the CPI(M) to the BJP, by a big margin of 40,774 votes.
The Trinamool Congress’s dominance has extended to Lok Sabha elections as well, with the party leading in the Falta Assembly segment in all four parliamentary polls since 2009. It led the CPI(M) by 25,752 votes in 2009 and by 8,505 votes in 2014. The BJP has edged past the CPI(M) to emerge as the principal challenger to the Trinamool Congress but has not come close to dislodging it, as the Trinamool led over the BJP by 43,777 votes in 2019 and an even bigger margin of 168,372 votes in 2024.
Falta constituency covers the entire Falta community development block, along with the Bhadura Haridas and Kalatalahat gram panchayats of the Diamond Harbour II block. It is one of the segments under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat. Falta had 245,782 registered voters in 2024, up from 236,768 in 2021, 225,763 in 2019, 212,340 in 2016 and 182,605 in 2011. Muslims form the largest voter bloc with 30.30 per cent of the electorate, while the Scheduled Castes account for 25.66 per cent. It is a predominantly rural seat, with 92.01 per cent of its voters living in villages compared to 7.99 per cent in urban pockets. Unlike many other constituencies in West Bengal, which have been recording a decline in turnout, Falta has seen turnout rise over time, from 85.65 per cent in 2011 to 88.63 per cent in 2016, 86.75 per cent in 2019 and 87.84 per cent in 2021.
Falta was an old human settlement in pre-British India and briefly came into prominence in 1756 when Siraj-ud-Daulah sacked Kolkata and the English residents moved down the Hooghly and regrouped near Falta. The wider area still carries traces of early European presence, including the site of a former Dutch fort and other riverbank remains that point to a long history of river trade.
Falta lies on the east bank of the Hooghly in the Ganges delta, on flat alluvial land that forms part of the Kulpi-Diamond Harbour plain. The terrain is low and cut by tidal channels and creeks. Agriculture, fishing and small river-based trade have long been the mainstays of the local economy.
In recent decades, Falta has seen fresh industrial and services growth because of the Falta Special Economic Zone and related facilities along the Hooghly. These have brought in manufacturing units, logistics and ancillary services into what remains a largely rural hinterland. Yet the block still faces typical lower-delta constraints such as saline soils, limited irrigation, and exposure to flooding, which keep much of its agriculture mono-cropped and vulnerable.
Falta is connected to Kolkata by road over a distance of about 50 to 51 km via the Diamond Harbour Road corridor, with buses and private vehicles providing the main link. Diamond Harbour town lies roughly 16 to 20 km away by road, while Budge Budge is about 25 km, Amtala is about 22 km, and Kakdwip is about 64 km from Falta. The nearest suburban railway access is usually through Diamond Harbour station on the Sealdah-Diamond Harbour line, around 18 to 20 km away by road, with other stations on the Sealdah-Namkhana section reachable through the same road network. Across the Hooghly in Howrah and further towards Hooghly district, Falta looks towards Uluberia, about 30 to 32 km away by road, and the larger urban centres of Howrah and Kolkata, roughly 45 to 50 km away, which act as gateways to towns in North 24 Parganas on the other side of the metropolis.
Given this setting of an old river settlement with a largely rural electorate and a growing industrial belt along the Hooghly, the political trend is clear. The Trinamool Congress has won all three Assembly elections from Falta since 2011 and has led in the Falta segment in all four Lok Sabha polls since 2009, giving it seven consecutive first-place finishes. The Left Front-Congress alliance has declined steadily, while the BJP has emerged as the main challenger, more in form than in threat. If this pattern holds, the Trinamool Congress may not have to break a sweat to retain the Falta constituency in the 2026 Assembly elections.
(Ajay Jha)
