Patashpur, in the Egra subdivision of Purba Medinipur district, is a general category Assembly seat comprising the entire Patashpur I community development block and five gram panchayats of Patashpur II block. It is one of the seven Assembly segments of the Kanthi Lok Sabha constituency.
Established in 1951, Patashpur has voted in all 17 Assembly elections so far, though its boundaries have been redrawn several times before taking the present shape ahead of the 2011 polls. The CPI has won the highest number of terms here, taking the seat eight times, including six consecutive victories between 1982 and 2006. The Congress and the Trinamool Congress have each won three times, while the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the Praja Socialist Party, and the Janata Party have one win apiece.
The Trinamool Congress ended the CPI’s six-term sequence in 2011. Kamakhya Nandan Das Mohapatra of the CPI had held the seat continuously from 1982 to 2006. Jyotirmoy Kar of the Trinamool Congress defeated Makhanlal Nayak of the CPI by 6,650 votes in 2011 and by a much larger margin of 29,888 votes in 2016. Trinamool’s cushion shrank in 2021, when its candidate Uttam Barik beat the BJP’s Ambujaksha Mahanti by 9,994 votes. The BJP’s vote share had earlier inched up from 2.43 per cent in 2011 to 5.36 per cent in 2016, but shot up to 45.64 per cent in 2021, while the CPI’s share collapsed from 46 per cent in 2011 and 38.78 per cent in 2016 to just 3.18 per cent in 2021.
Trinamool’s strength is also visible in the Lok Sabha voting from the Patashpur segment. The party has led here in all four parliamentary elections since 2009. It was ahead of the CPI by 9,449 votes in 2009 and 33,625 votes in 2014. From 2019, the BJP has emerged as the main challenger. Trinamool led over the BJP by 14,355 votes in 2019, but this advantage narrowed to 8,608 votes in 2024.
Patashpur had 248,377 registered voters in 2024, up from 236,413 in 2021, 227,491 in 2019, 212,234 in 2016, and 182,774 in 2011. Scheduled Castes form the largest single group, with 13.11 per cent of the electorate, while Muslims account for 9.50 per cent. It is overwhelmingly rural, with 97.83 per cent rural voters and only 2.17 per cent in urban pockets. Turnout has been high, though with a slight downward trend. It stood at 92.54 per cent in 2011, 88.73 per cent in 2016, 86.47 per cent in 2019, 88.48 per cent in 2021, and 85.34 per cent in 2024.
Patashpur’s history is closely tied to the turbulent period of the Bargi raids in 18th century Bengal. The Bargis, Maratha light cavalry who frequently raided Bengal, ruled in Patashpur for many years when it was not yet part of the Medinipur district. In 1760, the Medinipur district came under the control of the East India Company, and the Bargis used Patashpur as a base to loot the Midnapore region. In 1803, Odisha, along with Patashpur, passed under direct British rule, bringing the area more firmly into the colonial administrative fold and ending the era of frequent raids.
Topographically, Patashpur lies in the south eastern part of Purba Medinipur in the coastal and deltaic plains. The land is flat and low-lying, intersected by creeks, tidal channels, and embanked fields. Major rivers in the wider district, such as the Haldi, Rupnarayan, Rasulpur, Bagui, and Keleghai, flow broadly from north to south or southeast, feeding a network of smaller streams and canals. Tidal floods are common in several blocks of the district, including parts of Patashpur, which makes the area prone to waterlogging, salinity, and storm damage during severe weather.
Agriculture dominates the local economy. Paddy is the main crop, supported by low and high capacity deep tubewells for irrigation, as the district lacks a strong canal network. Farmers also grow pulses, oilseeds, and vegetables. Pisciculture is important, with numerous ponds and water bodies used for fish farming, while many households supplement farm income through wage work, small trade, and transport. Basic infrastructure, such as electricity, has reached most villages, though more remote settlements still face gaps in services and rely on water routes for access.
Patashpur is linked by road to Egra, the subdivision headquarters, and to other towns of Purba Medinipur. Egra lies roughly 30 to 35 km away by local roads, while the district headquarters at Tamluk is about 60 to 70 km distant. Contai (Kanthi), the main town of the coastal belt, lies within about 40 to 50 km, and the sea resort of Digha is further southwest beyond Contai. Kolkata is roughly 120 to 140 km away by road via Tamluk and Kolaghat along National Highway 16. Rail links are accessed through Egra, Contai, or Tamluk, which connect to the South Eastern Railway network and onward to Howrah and Kharagpur.
The Trinamool Congress can draw comfort from its recent record in Patashpur, having won all three Assembly elections and led in all four Lok Sabha polls here since 2009. Yet the BJP has now become a serious force, with its vote share rising sharply and the gap between the two parties narrowing to about four percentage points over the last two elections. The Left Front-Congress alliance, stitched together ahead of the 2021 polls, has been pushed to the margins and is unlikely to influence the outcome, turning Patashpur into a direct battleground between Trinamool and the BJP. Trinamool still holds the notional edge, but it is fully aware that it faces a stiff challenge. The seat could well go down to the wire in the 2026 Assembly elections.
(Ajay Jha)
