Nakashipara, a block-level town in the Krishnanagar Sadar subdivision of Nadia district in West Bengal, is a general category Assembly constituency. It consists of 11 gram panchayats of Nakashipara community development block and two gram panchayats of Kaliganj block. Nakashipara forms one of the seven segments of the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat.
Nakashipara constituency has participated in all 17 Assembly elections since its inception in 1951. The Congress party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and the Trinamool Congress have all won the seat five times each, while the Bangla Congress and an Independent politician have emerged victorious once each. One notable feature of Nakashipara is that it gives a very long rope to the party it elects before changing its mind. The Congress party won five of the first seven elections between 1951 and 1972, with the breakaway Bangla Congress, which later merged back into the parent party, and an Independent breaking its victory sequence in 1967 and 1971. This was followed by five consecutive terms for the CPI(M) between 1977 and 1996. Nakashipara then turned its back on the CPI(M) even before West Bengal voted it out of power in 2011, as the Trinamool Congress has won five consecutive terms since it first contested here after its formation in 1998 and remains undefeated, with its nominee Kallol Khan winning all five elections.
Kallol KhanтАЩs winning streak began in 2001, when he defeated CPI(M)тАЩs sitting MLA Shaikh Khabiruddin Ahmed in a close contest by 3,353 votes. His next victory in 2006 was a photo finish, as he prevailed over his CPI(M) rival S M Sadi by just 410 votes. The CPI(M) kept trying with new candidates in every election. It fielded Gayatri Sardar against Kallol Khan in 2011, and his victory margin jumped to 16,474 votes. The party confronted him with yet another new candidate in 2016, nominating Tanmay Ganguli, who performed better, yet Kallol Khan still secured his fourth consecutive term by a reduced margin of 6,250 votes. In 2021, Kallol Khan did not face the same opponent, as the BJP moved out of the margins to become the principal challenger, but his victory margin against the BJPтАЩs Santanu Dey rose again to 21,271 votes.
A similar dominant performance of the Trinamool Congress during Lok Sabha elections is reflected in the Nakashipara Assembly segment, with the party leading here in all parliamentary polls since 2009. The only change is that the BJP has replaced the CPI(M) as the main challenger in the last two Lok Sabha elections. Trinamool led the CPI(M) by almost identical margins of 10,552 votes and 10,588 votes in 2009 and 2014, respectively. The BJP, which surged to the second position from 2019, has been giving a stiffer fight to the Trinamool Congress at the parliamentary level, with Trinamool leading the BJP by 5,080 votes in 2019 and 6,099 votes in 2024 in the Nakashipara Assembly segment.
Nakashipara lies in the alluvial plains of central Nadia, which is shaped by the Bhagirathi and its distributaries, such as the Jalangi. The terrain is flat and low lying, with fertile soil that supports intensive agriculture, but is also prone to waterlogging and seasonal flooding when rivers and channels overflow. Agriculture and allied activities form the backbone of the local economy, with paddy, jute, and vegetables as major crops, while small-scale trade and services are concentrated around the block headquarters and nearby market centres.
Road and rail connectivity link Nakashipara with the rest of Nadia and Kolkata. Nakashipara is located about 29 to 33 km north of Krishnanagar, the district headquarters. The nearest railway access is through stations on the Krishnanagar-Lalgola line, which connects the region to Sealdah and Kolkata, placing Nakashipara roughly 110 to 120 km away from Kolkata by rail and about 120 to 140 km by road. National Highway connectivity through Nadia, especially along the old NH34 corridor, further ties Nakashipara to neighbouring districts and the state capital.
Nearby towns include Nabadwip, an important religious and educational centre, at an estimated distance of 50 to 60 km from Nakashipara by road. Ranaghat, a major rail and commercial hub in Nadia, lies about 80 to 90 km away, while Kalyani, an industrial and academic town further south in the district, is approximately 100 to 110 km from Nakashipara. In adjoining districts, Berhampore in Murshidabad district lies roughly 70 to 80 km to the north west, while Shantipur in Nadia and the towns of North 24 Parganas are within a wider radius of around 90 to 140 km, linked by highways and railway lines that pass through the district.
Nakashipara had 256,405 registered voters in 2024, up from 247,691 in 2021, 234,501 in 2019, 221,339 in 2016, and 187,228 in 2011. Muslims, with around 39 per cent of the voters, are the most dominant group, while the Scheduled Castes number 26.07 per cent of the electorate and the Scheduled Tribes account for 3.25 per cent. It is a predominantly rural seat, with 88.53 per cent rural voters and 11.47 per cent urban electorate. The voter turnout has remained robust and mostly above 80 per cent, standing at 87.47 per cent in 2011, 85.48 per cent in 2016, 83.65 per cent in 2019, 84.67 per cent in 2021, and 80.09 per cent in 2024.
There is a clear voting pattern in Nakashipara. The BJP polls a higher number of votes here during Lok Sabha elections, but its support dips notably during Assembly polls. This suggests that a section of the electorate does not yet see the BJP as a party likely to form the government in West Bengal. The onus, therefore, will be on the BJP to convince NakashiparaтАЩs voters that it is a serious challenger to the Trinamool Congress and close to forming a government in the state. If it fails to do so, the Trinamool Congress may not face any major difficulty in its bid to win the Nakashipara seat for the sixth consecutive term in the 2026 Assembly elections. The decline of the CPI(M)-Congress alliance in the constituency is not helping the BJPтАЩs cause, since a split in the Muslim voter base of the Trinamool Congress remains an essential prerequisite for the BJP to nurture realistic hopes of emerging triumphant in Nakashipara.
(Ajay Jha)
