Mangalkot Assembly constituency was established in 1951 but disappeared from the electoral map in 1957 before being revived ahead of the 1962 elections. It is composed of the entire Monglakote community development block, along with the Saragram, Gidhram and Alampur gram panchayats of Katwa I block, which gives the seat a completely rural character with no urban voters on its rolls. It forms one of the seven segments of the Bolpur Lok Sabha constituency. Mangalkot had 259,847 registered voters in 2024, up from 251,003 in 2021, 241,706 in 2019, 228,313 in 2016 and 202,627 in 2011. Scheduled Castes constitute 31.97 per cent of voters, Scheduled Tribes 2.39 per cent and Muslims 31.20 per cent, making it a constituency where Scheduled Castes and Muslims together account for more than 63 per cent of the electorate.
There is a specific historical reason why the Left built such deep roots in this area. Damage to embankments along the Ajay River and the resulting floods had long troubled the Ausgram-Mangalkot belt, but the devastating flood of 1943 caused such suffering that people launched a mass movement for the repair of the embankments. A huge meeting was held at Guskara in 1944, attended by the Maharaja of Bardhaman, but the colonial government did not act. It was the Communists, who had already been leading agitations in the region, who finally mobilised a large volunteer workforce, rebuilt the embankments, and brought relief to the villages. That intervention, when the British administration had turned its back on the problem, laid the foundation for the Communist Party’s popularity and long electoral dominance in Mangalkot and the surrounding blocks.
The CPI(M)’s long reign in Mangalkot continued even after other parts of the state had turned away from it and brought down the Left Front government in 2011. The party won the Mangalkot seat for the eighth consecutive term in 2011 when its nominee Sajahan Choudhury defeated Apurba Chaudhuri of the Trinamool Congress by a wafer-thin margin of 126 votes. The Trinamool finally succeeded in breaking this victory chain in 2016, when its candidate Siddiqullah Chowdhury defeated the sitting MLA Sajahan Choudhury by 11,874 votes. After a narrow victory in 2011 and a comprehensive defeat in 2016, the CPI(M) declined further as it slipped to a distant third in 2021 with just 7.73 per cent of the vote, while the Trinamool shifted its sitting MLA to another seat and renominated its 2011 candidate Apurba Chaudhuri. Apurba won the seat, defeating the BJP’s Rana Protap Goswami by 22,337 votes.
Voting patterns during Lok Sabha polls in the Mangalkot segment mirror this arc of change, with the CPI(M) enjoying a last hurrah before giving way to the Trinamool and then being pushed out of even second place by the BJP. The CPI(M) led the Congress by 16,794 votes in 2009. The Trinamool displaced it from the top spot in 2014 by opening up a lead of 24,094 votes over the CPI(M). The BJP then rubbed salt into the CPI(M)’s wounds by emerging as the principal challenger to the Trinamool, which tightened its grip on Mangalkot by increasing its lead over the BJP to 29,227 votes in 2019 and 46,507 votes in 2024.
Mangalkot lies on the Kanksa-Ketugram plain in the northern part of Purba Bardhaman, along the Ajay River, which for a long stretch forms the boundary with Birbhum district before turning south towards the Bhagirathi. The area marks the transition from the uneven lateritic country of western Bardhaman to the alluvial flood plains further east. The terrain is mostly flat to gently undulating, with fertile but flood-prone soils near the rivers and more mixed, lateritic patches away from them. The Ajay and its smaller tributaries, along with local streams and khals, shape the drainage pattern and have historically made embankments and flood protection a central concern.
Agriculture is the backbone of the Mangalkot economy. Paddy is the principal crop, with the rabi season seeing wheat, pulses and oilseeds sown in suitable tracts. Jute and vegetables are grown in parts of the block where irrigation is available and soils are better-suited, while mustard, potato and other cash crops are taken up in some pockets. Small rice mills, cold storages, brick kilns and rural markets at places like Mongalkote bazar provide additional non-farm work, but most livelihoods still depend on farming and agricultural wage labour, supplemented by migration to towns in Bardhaman, Bolpur, Durgapur, and Kolkata.
.Katwa is its nearest town lying about 30 to 32 km away by road. Bardhaman town, the district headquarters, is around 40 to 45 km to the south, while Bolpur-Santiniketan in neighbouring Birbhum district is roughly 35 to 40 km to the north-west. Kolkata, the state capital, is much farther off, at a road distance of about 120 to 140 km. Within Purba Bardhaman, Mangalkot is also linked by road to places such as Guskara and Bhatar, each within about 30 to 35 km, while beyond the district it looks towards Nabadwip and Krishnanagar in Nadia, 45 to 60 km away, and to towns in Birbhum and Murshidabad that lie just across the district borders.
Against this backdrop of historically strong Left roots, a sizeable Scheduled Caste and Muslim electorate, and consistently high participation, the shift from a long Left Front-Congress dominance in past Assembly elections to a clear Trinamool edge and the BJP’s emergence as the main challenger marks a major change in Khargram’s politics. It means the 2026 election is set up as a straight fight between the Trinamool and the BJP. The Trinamool enters the contest with the clear advantage of recent Assembly wins and widening Lok Sabha leads from this segment, while the BJP’s task will be to convert its status as principal challenger into a broader coalition across the SC and Muslim-dominated electorate if it hopes to unsettle the Trinamool in what is fast becoming its new bastion.
(Ajay Jha)
