Ghatal is a semi-urban Assembly constituency created in 1951. It consists of the Ghatal municipality, the Ghatal Kharar municipality, the Ghatal community development block, and three gram panchayats of the Daspur I block, and is one of the segments under the Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency. The seat has gone to the polls in all 17 Assembly elections held so far in the state. It was a twin-seat constituency in the first two elections. The undivided CPI won both seats in 1952, while the Congress took both in 1957. Over the full period, the CPI(M) has dominated, winning 10 elections, including seven consecutive victories from 1977 to 2006. The undivided CPI added two victories, giving the Left 12 of the 17 terms. The Congress and the Trinamool Congress have won the seat twice each, while the BJP opened its account in 2021.
In the Trinamool era, Shankar Dolai was central to the party’s rise in Ghatal. He won the seat for Trinamool in 2011 by defeating Chhabi Pakhira of the CPI(M) by 16,277 votes and retained it in 2016 with an even larger margin of 19,479 votes over CPI(M) candidate Kamal Chandra Dolui. The picture changed in 2021 when Sital Kapat of the BJP narrowly defeated Dolai by 966 votes, giving the BJP its first Assembly victory in Ghatal and signalling that the battle here had shifted from a Left versus Trinamool contest to a Trinamool versus BJP face-off.
Lok Sabha voting from the Ghatal Assembly segment shows how leads have tightened in recent years. In 2009, the CPI led the Trinamool by 16,516 votes. In 2014, Trinamool surged ahead, establishing a lead of 50,427 votes over the CPI. Since then, margins have shrunk. Trinamool led the BJP by 5,866 votes in 2019 and by 4,405 votes in 2024, pointing to a competitive two-party race rather than a one-sided hold.
Ghatal had 288,317 registered voters in 2024, up from 279,908 in 2021, 270,217 in 2019, 257,163 in 2016 and 224,916 in 2011. Scheduled Castes, for whom the seat is reserved, form 27.82 per cent of the electorate. Scheduled Tribes account for 2.13 per cent, and Muslims for 7.50 per cent of its voters. The constituency is predominantly rural, with 80.70 per cent of voters living in villages and 19.30 per cent in urban areas. Voter turnout has remained high, at 86.20 per cent in 2011, 84.16 per cent in 2016, 80.11 per cent in 2019 and 80.50 per cent in 2021.
In the days when Tamralipta was a thriving port on the Bay of Bengal, Ghatal functioned as a smaller river port with its own bandar a few kilometres east of the present town, where boats and small ships anchored with goods. Over time, this spot became the confluence of the Dwarakeswar, Shilabati, Damodar and Jhumi rivers, making Ghatal’s role central to riverine trade. The town gained early prominence as a centre for cotton textiles, tussar silk and bell metal utensils. The Dutch operated a factory here, with these activities continuing into the early British period. Under colonial administration, the Ghatal municipality was established in 1869.
Ghatal stands on the flat alluvial plains of the lower Shilabati basin and is one of the most flood-prone pockets of southern West Bengal. The Shilabati, also called the Silai, divides the town and joins the Dwarakeswar near Bandar, where the combined flow is known as the Rupnarayan. The low elevation, heavy monsoon discharge from upstream reservoirs on the Kangsabati and Damodar, and tidal influence from the Rupnarayan together make the Ghatal region prone to recurrent inundation, with damaging floods recorded in multiple years over the last decade.
The local economy is built around agriculture on fertile but hazard-prone land. Paddy is the dominant crop, supplemented by vegetables and some oilseeds, but monsoon floods often damage kharif crops and disrupt sowing, forcing some farmers to skip the main season and focus on winter cultivation. Many households diversify through agricultural wage work, small trade, transport, fishing and migration to larger centres such as Kharagpur, Medinipur and Kolkata for regular or seasonal employment.
Ghatal is connected to the rest of Paschim Medinipur and adjoining districts by a network of roads and bridges. Medinipur town, the district headquarters, is about 60 km away by road. Kharagpur lies roughly 80 km away by road, while Kolkata is farther east at about 120 to 130 km. Within Paschim Medinipur, towns such as Chandrakona, Sabang and Pingla are accessible by district and state roads. To the south and southeast, Kanthi and the seaside town of Digha in Purba Medinipur are reachable by road across the Rupnarayan and along the coastal corridor. To the north and northwest, Bankura and Bardhaman lie within a broader travel radius, linked via the Damodar and Dwarakeswar river valleys. Rail connectivity is available through nearby junctions such as Medinipur and Kharagpur, which connect Ghatal by bus and road links to the Howrah-Kharagpur and Kharagpur-Tatanagar main lines.
Ghatal’s political story in recent decades is one of transition from a Left bastion to a competitive arena between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP. On paper, Trinamool has a stronger claim, with two Assembly wins since 2011 and three consecutive leads in the Lok Sabha elections from this segment. What puts the BJP on an almost equal footing is that it has the sitting MLA and has trailed Trinamool by narrow margins in national polls by 2.70 per cent in 2019 and 1.90 per cent in 2024. The Left Front-Congress alliance has become largely irrelevant here, with a combined vote share below five per cent in recent contests and little sign of revival. All this sets the stage for a fierce and closely fought contest between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress in Ghatal in the 2026 Assembly elections, where small shifts in support could decide the winner.
(Ajay Jha)
