Located in Purba Bardhaman district, Purbasthali Uttar is one of the two Assembly constituencies based around Purbasthali town, the other being Purbasthali Dakshin. The seat was created in 1951. It comprises the entire Purbasthali II community development block, along with three gram panchayats each of the Purbasthali I and Manteswar blocks. It is part of the Bardhaman Purba Lok Sabha constituency.
Purbasthali Uttar has figured in all 17 Assembly elections held in West Bengal so far. The Congress began with three straight wins between 1951 and 1962. The CPI(M) captured the seat in the next three elections in 1967, 1969 and 1971. The Congress took it back in 1972, which remains its last victory here. From 1977, the CPI(M) won six consecutive terms up to 2006 before ceding space to the Trinamool Congress in 2011. The CPI(M) briefly regained the seat in 2016 but lost it again to Trinamool in 2021. Overall, the CPI(M) has taken the seat 11 times, the Congress four times, and the Trinamool Congress twice.
In 2011, Tapan Chatterjee of the Trinamool Congress managed to breach the Left bastion by defeating the CPI(M)тАЩs Pradip Saha by 2,140 votes. The result flipped in 2016 when Saha defeated Chatterjee by 2,828 votes, again by a narrow margin. The Trinamool won back the seat in 2021 with Tapan Chatterjee once more as its candidate. He beat BJP nominee Gobardhan Das by 6,706 votes, confirming the BJPтАЩs emerging status as the main challenger.
In Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool has built a more consistent edge in the Purbasthali Uttar segment, though its leads have narrowed of late. In 2009, Trinamool still trailed the CPI(M) here by 5,075 votes. It moved ahead in 2014, leading the CPI(M) by 15,858 votes. Since then, the BJP has replaced the Left as TrinamoolтАЩs principal rival. Trinamool led the BJP by only 2,705 votes in 2019 and by 3,238 votes in 2024.
Purbasthali Uttar had 261,978 registered voters in 2024, up from 252,626 in 2021, 241,961 in 2019, 225,513 in 2016, and 189,373 in 2011. Muslims form the largest single voter group at 28.50 per cent of the electorate, followed by Scheduled Castes at 25.20 per cent and Scheduled Tribes at 3.44 per cent. It is a purely rural constituency with no urban voters on its rolls. Turnout has remained high with small fluctuations, standing at 88.10 per cent in 2011, 86.45 per cent in 2016, 83.69 per cent in 2019, 84.12 per cent in 2021, and 80.39 per cent in 2024.
Purbasthali lies in the alluvial plains of Purba Bardhaman, in the stretch between Katwa and Nabadwip. The area is located on fertile plains formed between the Bhagirathi, Ajay, and Damodar rivers, with deep alluvial soils that support intensive agriculture. The town itself is close to a prominent oxbow lake of the Bhagirathi, known for its bird-rich wetlands, while smaller channels and ponds dot the countryside and serve irrigation and household needs.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the local economy. Farmers grow paddy as the principal crop, with jute, oilseeds, vegetables, and some pulses on suitable tracts. The high water table and alluvial soil support multiple cropping in many villages. Many residents also work as agricultural labourers or in small trade, transport and services in nearby market centres, such as Purbasthali, Kalna, and Katwa, with some commuting further to Bardhaman and Kolkata for work.
Purbasthali Uttar is reasonably well connected by rail and road. Purbasthali town lies on the Bandel-Katwa railway line, with direct trains to Howrah and Sealdah that take about two and a half hours, linking the area closely to the Kolkata urban region. By road, Purbasthali is around 60 to 70 km from Bardhaman, the district headquarters, reachable via Kalna and Dhatrigram, and roughly 120 km from Kolkata by the Barrackpore-Kalyani Expressway and the STKK Road. Nearby towns in Purba Bardhaman, such as Kalna, Katwa, and Bardhaman, and those across the river in Nadia, such as Nabadwip and Santipur, fall within an easy travel radius.
For the 2026 Assembly elections, the numbers on paper appear to favour the Trinamool Congress, which has led Purbasthali Uttar in five of the last seven major elections across Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. However, its last three leads over the BJP have been slender, 1.30 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, 3.20 per cent in the 2021 Assembly election, and 1.50 per cent in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The BJP is certain to challenge the Trinamool with full vigour here and could hardly wish for a better setting for a modest revival of the Left Front-Congress alliance, as even a small dent in TrinamoolтАЩs Muslim vote base would boost its chances of registering a first-ever victory in Purbasthali Uttar in 2026. Trinamool will go into the election with a notional edge, but much will depend on whether the BJP can expand its support among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe voters and whether the Left Front-Congress alliance can reclaim enough ground to fragment the anti-BJP vote. A close and finely balanced contest is in prospect in Purbasthali Uttar in the 2026 Assembly elections.
(Ajay Jha)
