Established in 1951, Kalna has gone to the Assembly polls 17 times. In 1951 and 1957, it was a dual-seat constituency, and over the decades, the Communist camp held it for 12 terms, including 11 wins by the CPI(M) and one by the undivided CPI. The Congress won twice, and the Trinamool Congress has registered three back-to-back victories since 2011.
Reservation for Scheduled Castes in 2009 turned out to be a big advantage for the Trinamool Congress. After heavy defeats to the CPI(M) in 2001 and 2006, Trinamool’s Biswajit Kundu won in 2011 by 12,637 votes against CPI(M)’s Sukul Chandra Sikdar and again in 2016 by 25,261 votes, before switching to the BJP and losing to Trinamool’s Deboprosad Bag by 7,478 votes in 2021.
Even though Kundu lost in 2021, his move helped the BJP. The party’s vote share rose from 9.08 per cent in 2016 to 42.40 per cent in 2021, a jump of 33.32 percentage points, and it fell short of Trinamool by only 3.60 percentage points in that Assembly election.
The Lok Sabha trend underlines the tightening race. In 2009, Trinamool led the CPI(M) in the Kalna segment by just 1,211 votes, a gap that widened sharply by 2014 to 19,751 votes, but by 2019 the picture had changed, with the BJP trailing Trinamool by only 3,633 votes, or about 1.8 percentage points, and in 2024 Trinamool managed to stretch that lead to 10,159 votes, around 5 percentage points.
Kalna had 187,742 registered voters in 2011, 220,044 in 2016, 234,655 in 2019, 241,741 in 2021, and 247,415 in 2024, showing steady growth in the electorate. Scheduled Castes form the largest group with 35.22 per cent of voters, Scheduled Tribes account for 11.51 per cent, and Muslims for 15.80 per cent. It is a semi-urban constituency, with 73.45 per cent rural voters and 26.55 per cent living in urban areas.
Voter turnout has been robust in Kalna. It stood at 90.65 per cent in 2011, 88.03 per cent in 2016, 85.09 per cent in 2019, 86.76 per cent in 2021, and 82.93 per cent in 2024.
Kalna’s history goes back many centuries. The town appears as Ambika Kalna in a 6th century text, and its name is linked to the goddess Kali, worshipped here as Maa Ambika. Over time, it grew into an important riverside town and a local centre of trade and religion.
Kalna is known for its temples and old structures. The Rajbari complex, the ring of 108 Shiva temples, the Siddheswari Kali temple and other shrines built mainly under the Bardhaman kings between the 17th and 19th centuries give Kalna the image of an old temple town, and it also has remains of an old fort and religious buildings from its days as a regional centre.
Kalna stands on the western bank of the Bhagirathi River, a distributary of the Ganga, on the flat, fertile alluvial plains of south Bengal. The land is mostly level, supporting rice, jute, and other crops typical of the Purba Bardhaman belt. Agriculture and allied activities are important to the local economy. Kalna town itself supports a mix of small-scale trade, services, cottage industries, and temple-linked tourism. Many residents also commute for work to other towns in Purba Bardhaman and across the river towards Nadia and Hooghly districts.
Kalna is well connected by both road and rail. It lies on the Howrah-Katwa loop line, with Ambika Kalna station about 81 km from Howrah by rail, and is linked by road to Krishnanagar, Katwa, Bandel, Pandua, Boinchi, Memari, and Bardhaman, which tie it into the wider road network of south Bengal.
Kalna is linked by road to a cluster of towns in Purba Bardhaman and neighbouring districts. It is about 65-70 km from Bardhaman by road, around 80-90 km from Howrah and Kolkata via the main highways, roughly 30-35 km from Memari, and about 45-50 km from Bandel and Pandua across the district border.
On the other side of the Bhagirathi, Kalna is connected by ferry and road to Nabadwip in Nadia district, which lies roughly 20-25 km away, and Krishnanagar, the Nadia district headquarters, is about 40-45 km from Kalna by road.
Kalna goes into the 2026 Assembly election with the Trinamool Congress apparently well placed on paper, having led in all seven major elections held here since 2009. Yet the numbers of the last three elections also show that the BJP has been pushing it hard, with the gap in the 2024 national polls down to about five percentage points, which is within reach for a party whose vote share rose by over 33 percentage points not long ago.
The BJP is expected to work for deeper support among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe voters and also to benefit from any further revival of the Left Front-Congress alliance, which, though weakened, can still cut into the Muslim vote base of the Trinamool Congress. With or without a sizable comeback by the Left Front-Congress combine, Kalna is set for a close contest in 2026, where last-minute shifts and local manoeuvring may prove decisive.
(Ajay Jha)
