Kakdwip is a subdivision-level town located in the South 24 Parganas district, near the Sundarbans delta, which is renowned for its mangrove forests and diverse wildlife. The Kakdwip constituency, which is entirely rural in nature, comprises the Kakdwip community development block, along with the Budhakhali and Narayanpur gram panchayats of the Namkhana block.
Established in 1957, Kakdwip has gone to the polls 16 times and for long was the playground of the Congress versus CPI(M) rivalry, with the CPI(M) winning seven terms and the Congress party five times. Ironically, these two arch-rivals have in recent years joined hands to take on the Trinamool Congress, which has won the seat four times, including a run of three consecutive victories since 2011 with Manturam Pakhira, the incumbent junior minister for Sundarbans affairs, as its candidate. Notably, he has defeated rivals from three different parties during this period.
In 2011, Pakhira defeated Milan Bhattacharya of the CPI(M) by 73,980 votes. Earlier, he had won Kakdwip in 2001 by a slender margin of 505 votes and then lost the seat in 2006. In 2016, Pakhira defeated the Congress party’s Rafik Uddin Molla by 24,919 votes. His winning margin remained almost similar when he beat the BJP’s Dipankar Jana by 25,302 votes in 2021.
The Trinamool Congress’s strong show has continued in Lok Sabha elections as well, with the party leading from the Kakdwip Assembly segment in all four parliamentary polls held since 2009. It was ahead of the CPI(M) by 14,519 votes in 2009 and by 31,551 votes in 2014. Thereafter, the BJP replaced the CPI(M) as the main challenger, but without making much dent in Trinamool’s dominance, as the party maintained almost identical leads of 25,483 votes in 2019 and 25,406 votes in 2024.
Kakdwip has seen a steady increase in the number of registered voters. It had 261,682 electors in 2024, up from 247,826 in 2021, 234,412 in 2019, 217,094 in 2016 and 180,377 in 2011. Although it is a general category constituency, the Scheduled Castes, who form 33.30 per cent of its voters, dominate politics here, while Muslims account for 15.40 per cent of the electorate.
Kakdwip is an overwhelmingly rural constituency with no urban voters on its rolls. Voter turnout has remained strong and steady, at 91.01 per cent in 2011, 89.91 per cent in 2016, 87.06 per cent in 2019, 88.69 per cent in 2021 and 83.42 per cent in 2024. It is evident that a larger proportion of voters turn out during Assembly elections compared to Lok Sabha polls.
Kakdwip is located in the southern part of South 24 Parganas, within the Ganga delta, on or near the banks of the Muriganga, a distributary of the Hooghly. The terrain is low-lying and flat, cut by rivers, creeks and canals, with embankments protecting fields and settlements from tides and floods. The area is exposed to cyclones, storm surges and salinity, which leave their mark on agriculture, housing and local infrastructure.
The economy is driven by agriculture, fishing and river-based activities. Farmers grow paddy, betel vine and vegetables in the limited cultivable tracts, while a large number of people depend on inland and coastal fishing, fish trading and related work in ice plants and small processing units. Boat services, ferry ghats and small markets link the villages to Kakdwip town and to larger centres higher up the river.
Kakdwip also serves as an important gateway to the Sundarbans and nearby coastal and island destinations. It is a key transit point for pilgrims travelling to Gangasagar on Sagar Island, one of the most important religious sites in eastern India. From Kakdwip, ferries take passengers across the Muriganga to Kachuberia on Sagar Island, and from there, roads lead to Gangasagar, which lies about 25 to 30 km away in combined road and ferry distance. Other seaside spots such as Henry Island, Fraserganj and Bakkhali can be reached from Kakdwip via Namkhana by road and short ferry crossings, placing the town firmly on the tourism and pilgrimage circuit of coastal Bengal.
Kakdwip is linked to Kolkata and other parts of South 24 Parganas by both rail and road. It lies on the Sealdah-Namkhana section of the Kolkata Suburban Railway, which allows daily travel between Kakdwip and Sealdah over a distance of roughly 90 to 95 km. By road, Kakdwip is about 80 to 85 km from Kolkata along Diamond Harbour Road and its extensions. Diamond Harbour, an important river port and town in the district, is about 40 to 45 km from Kakdwip by road. Namkhana, another key coastal gateway, lies within about 20 to 30 km. The district headquarters, Alipore in Kolkata, is roughly 80 km away. Other towns of South 24 Parganas and adjoining districts are further off, making Kakdwip one of the last major settlement clusters on the way to the sea and the Sundarbans.
The Trinamool Congress is unlikely to face any major hiccups in its bid to retain the Kakdwip seat in the 2026 Assembly elections. The Left Front-Congress alliance has slipped to the margins, polling only 2.41 per cent and 5.58 per cent of the vote in the last two contests, and does not pose a serious threat at present. The BJP, despite emerging as the main challenger, faces the daunting task of bridging an 11.60 percentage point gap in vote share, which makes a change of guard here difficult, if not impossible, unless there is an unexpected swing on the ground.
(Ajay Jha)
