Indas, also spelt Indus, is a block-level town in the Bishnupur subdivision of Bankura district. The constituency currently covers the entire Indas community development block, five gram panchayats of the Patrasayer block, and two gram panchayats of the Kotulpur block, and is one of the seven segments under the Bishnupur Lok Sabha constituency.
Created in 1967, Indas has gone to the polls 14 times. The breakaway Bangla Congress, which later merged with the Congress, won the first two elections in 1967 and 1969, while the Congress took the seat once in 1972. The CPI(M) has won here eight times, including a stretch of seven consecutive victories between 1977 and 2006, while the Trinamool Congress has taken the seat twice and the BJP once.
Trinamool’s rise in Indas was gradual. It finished runner-up in 2001 and 2006, before winning the seat for the first time in 2011. Gurupada Mete of the Trinamool defeated CPI(M) candidate Santanu Kumar Bora by 4,005 votes in 2011 and increased his margin to 18,837 votes over CPI(M)’s Dilip Kumar Malik in 2016. He died in October 2020 due to COVID-19 related complications, leading Trinamool to nominate his widow, Runu Mete, in 2021. She lost to the BJP’s Nirmal Kumar Dhara by 7,220 votes.
The BJP’s growth in Indas has been striking. It polled only 4.19 per cent of the vote in 2011 and 8.24 per cent in 2016 but jumped by nearly 39.80 percentage points to 48.04 per cent in 2021, when it captured the seat. Lok Sabha trends from the Indas segment show a similar surge. The BJP’s vote share here was 2.63 per cent in 2009 and 11.10 per cent in 2014, both times placing it a distant third while the CPI(M) led Trinamool by 27,809 votes in 2009 and Trinamool led the CPI(M) by 26,295 votes in 2014. In 2019, the BJP vaulted ahead, establishing a lead of 13,593 votes over Trinamool as its vote share rose by about 37 percentage points, before Trinamool reclaimed the segment in 2024 with a lead of 9,147 votes.
Indas had 249,307 registered voters in 2024, up from 242,938 in 2021, 234,417 in 2019, and 219,065 in 2016. Scheduled Castes form the dominant social bloc, accounting for 44.98 per cent of the electorate in this reserved seat, while Scheduled Tribes make up 2.38 per cent and Muslims 15.10 per cent of voters. The constituency is entirely rural, with no urban voters on the rolls, and turnout has remained robust and high, at 92.52 per cent in 2011, 90.06 per cent in 2016, 87.73 per cent in 2019, and 89.92 per cent in 2021.
Indas lies in the eastern part of Bankura district, in a belt where the terrain shifts from the undulating lateritic uplands of western Bankura towards lower, more level alluvial plains. The land around Indas is mostly flat to gently sloping, with a mix of old alluvium and lateritic patches and small water bodies scattered across the countryside.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the Indas economy. Paddy is the principal crop, supported by oilseeds, potatoes, and other seasonal crops where irrigation is available, while the more marginal lands remain heavily rainfall dependent. Most cultivators are small and marginal farmers, and many households supplement farm incomes with agricultural wage work, casual labour, small trade, brick-kiln work, and seasonal migration to nearby towns and industrial belts in Bankura, Bardhaman, and Hooghly.
Indas is connected by road to Bishnupur, Bankura town, and other surrounding centres. It lies roughly 40 to 45 km from Bishnupur by road and somewhat farther from Bankura, the district headquarters, via the regional road network. Kolkata is about 120 to 125 km away by road. Nearby railheads at Bishnupur and Bankura link the area to the South Eastern Railway system and onward to Howrah and other junctions, while smaller towns in neighbouring districts, such as Burdwan and Arambagh, are accessible by road across the Damodar and Dwarakeswar corridors.
After its two back-to-back strong performances when it led in the Indas segment in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and then won the Assembly seat in 2021, the BJP has reasons to fancy its chances of retaining the seat in the 2026 Assembly election despite the 2024 setback, when it trailed the Trinamool by about 4.16 per cent of the vote. For a party that added roughly 37 percentage points to its vote share here in a single general election and nearly 40 points in the subsequent Assembly election, that gap looks a manageable hurdle. The Left Front-Congress alliance, once dominant through the CPI(M), remains in decline and shows little sign of a substantial revival. On current trends, Indas is heading for a tough and close contest between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress in 2026, with the BJP defending recent gains and Trinamool determined to win the seat back.
(Ajay Jha)
