Kashipur Assembly constituency consists of the entire Kashipur community development block and seven gram panchayats of the Hura block. It is a segment of the Purulia Lok Sabha seat. Established in 1957, Kashipur began as a twin-seat constituency, a format that was used only in the first election. It has since gone to the polls 16 times. The CPI(M) has won the seat seven times, all in a row between 1977 and 2006. The Congress has registered five victories. The Trinamool Congress has taken the seat twice, while the CPI and the BJP have one win each. The Lok Sewak Sangh was a joint winner with the Congress in 1957, when Kashipur was a twin-seat constituency.
The Trinamool Congress, after failing to open its account in 2001 and 2006, finally halted the CPI(M)’s seven-term run in 2011. Its nominee, Swapan Kumar Beltharia, defeated the CPI(M)’s Subhash Chandra Mahata by 3,721 votes. Beltharia retained the seat in 2016, defeating CPI(M)’s Sudin Kisku as his victory margin rose to 19,578 votes. He, however, could not withstand the BJP surge in 2021. The BJP’s vote share jumped from 2.53 per cent in 2011 and 6.39 per cent in 2016 to 47.69 per cent in 2021, as BJP candidate Kamalakanta Hansda beat Beltharia by 7,387 votes.
Lok Sabha voting in the Kashipur segment underlines the shifting loyalties of its voters. In 2009, the Forward Bloc led the Congress by 12,488 votes. In 2014, the Trinamool led the Forward Bloc by 27,698 votes. The mood then swung to the BJP in 2019, when it established a lead of 16,154 votes. The Trinamool managed to snatch back a narrow lead in 2024, ahead of the BJP by only 1,866 votes.
Kashipur had 247,248 registered voters in 2024, up from 238,871 in 2021, 227,397 in 2019, 216,953 in 2016, and 188,352 in 2011. The Scheduled Castes form the largest bloc with 26.46 per cent of voters, closely followed by the Scheduled Tribes, who account for 24.36 per cent. Muslims have a very small presence. It is a predominantly rural seat, with 91.45 per cent of voters living in village clusters and only 8.55 per cent in urban areas. Turnout has been high and remarkably stable, at 82.49 per cent in 2011, 82.83 per cent in 2016, and 82.17 per cent in both 2019 and 2021, before dipping for the first time to 77.57 per cent in 2024.
Kashipur has a long and distinctive history linked to the Panchkot royal family. The region formed part of the Panchkot estate, whose rulers shifted their base here from Garh Panchakot around the mid-18th century after repeated Bargi raids devastated their earlier capital. The Kashipur Rajbari, built by Maharaja Neelmoni Singh Deo and later remodelled by his grandson Maharaja Jyotiprasad Singhdeo, still stands as a reminder of that lineage and the long span of Panchkot rule in this part of Manbhum, much of which was later reorganised into the present Purulia district.
Kashipur lies in the northern part of Purulia district on the lowest step of the Chotanagpur plateau. The landscape is marked by undulating land, scattered low hills, and lateritic uplands rather than flat alluvial plains. The broader district falls in a semi-arid belt with modest rainfall and soils that are often gravelly and low in water-holding capacity. The area is criss-crossed by rivers that drain the plateau, including the Damodar, Kansabati, Kumari, Darakeswar and Subarnarekha systems, with smaller streams and seasonal channels influencing farming. Agriculture remains the backbone of the Kashipur economy, with paddy as the main crop, supported by pulses, oilseeds and some coarse cereals, while the tougher terrain and repeated droughts limit irrigation and keep farm incomes modest. Purulia district also has mining activity, including black stone and other small and medium mines, and a few such mines fall within the Kashipur block. These quarries and stone-crushing units provide some local employment and feed the construction sector, but have not turned Kashipur into a major mining hub. Agriculture, supported by wages from mining and other manual work, still drives most village livelihoods in this constituency.
Kashipur is connected by road to Raghunathpur and Purulia town and, through them, to the wider region. Raghunathpur subdivision headquarters lies about 36 km away by road, while Purulia town, the district headquarters, is roughly 55 to 60 km from Kashipur. The nearest major railway access is Adra Junction, about 8 to 10 km away, which links Kashipur to Purulia, Asansol, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Ranchi, and Howrah.
From Kashipur, Ranchi lies at a road distance of roughly 150 to 160 km, while Dhanbad is around 50 to 60 km away, and Bankura is about 50 to 55 km, with these Jharkhand and West Bengal towns serving as important work destinations and market centres. Kolkata, the state capital, is much further east, at a distance of about 220 to 230 km by road.
.A keen and closely fought contest awaits Kashipur in the 2026 Assembly election. The Trinamool Congress has the advantage of its two recent Assembly wins and its ability to claw back a Lok Sabha lead in 2024, while the BJP carries the momentum of its 2021 victory and the confidence of having turned Kashipur into a genuine battleground. On paper, the two parties start roughly level, with the Left Front-Congress alliance too diminished to play more than a token role after its collapse into single-digit vote shares. The winner is likely to be the party that can frame the most convincing narrative and reach the last voter, especially among the large Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe electorate that now holds the balance in this old royal heartland of Purulia.
(Ajay Jha)
