Raina, also known as Rayna or Rainagar, is a community development block located in the Bardhaman Sadar South subdivision of Purba Bardhaman district. Originally set up as a twin-seat general category constituency in 1951, it was reserved for the Scheduled Castes from the 2011 elections. It forms one of the seven Assembly segments of the Bardhaman Purba Lok Sabha seat and covers the entire Raina II community development block and seven gram panchayats of the Raina I block, giving it an overwhelmingly rural character.
Raina has gone to the polls in all 17 Assembly elections held in West Bengal so far. The CPI(M) dominated with 10 wins, including eight straight victories from 1977 to 2011. The Krishak Mazdoor Praja Party took both seats in the 1951 inaugural election, while the Praja Socialist Party won twice, including both seats in 1957. The Congress party also won twice, with its last victory coming over half a century ago in 1972. The Trinamool Congress broke the CPI(M) run in 2016 and has won the last two elections in a row.
The CPI(M) registered its final win here in 2011, when Basudeb Khan defeated Trinamool Congress’s Nepal Ghorui by 12,221 votes in the first election after Raina became an SC-reserved seat. Ghorui turned the tables in 2016, beating Khan by a narrow margin of 448 votes. In 2021, the Trinamool Congress fielded Shampa Dhara as its new candidate, and she won convincingly, defeating the BJP’s Manik Roy by 18,205 votes. Basudeb Khan of the CPI(M) finished a distant third with just 11.06 per cent of the vote, compared to 39.55 per cent for the BJP and 47.46 per cent for Trinamool.
Lok Sabha voting trends from the Raina Assembly segment tell a similar story. The CPI(M) led the Trinamool Congress by 39,472 votes in 2009. Trinamool reversed this in 2014 with a lead of 5,008 votes over the CPI(M). The BJP then moved into second place in 2019 as Trinamool’s margin jumped to 54,849 votes, before settling slightly lower at 43,565 votes over the BJP in 2024.
Raina had 264,906 registered voters in 2024, up from 258,742 in 2021, 248,156 in 2019, 235,247 in 2016, and 209,734 in 2011. Scheduled Castes form 37.13 per cent of the electorate in this reserved seat, Scheduled Tribes 5.11 per cent, and Muslims 23.90 per cent. It is predominantly rural, with 97.50 per cent of voters living in villages and just 2.50 per cent in urban pockets. Voter turnout has stayed high, especially in Assembly polls, at 92.23 per cent in 2011, 87.72 per cent in 2016, and 88.67 per cent in 2021, compared to 86.29 per cent in 2019 and 84.69 per cent in 2024 for Lok Sabha elections.
Raina lies in the alluvial plains south of the Damodar River in the south western part of Purba Bardhaman district. The terrain is flat and fertile, formed by recent alluvial deposits from the Damodar to the north and east and the Dwarakeswar further south. The Damodar’s higher bed makes the area flood-prone, though embankments protect parts of the right bank. Canals, old river channels, and depressions mark the landscape, supporting irrigation but also posing drainage challenges during monsoons.
Agriculture drives the local economy, with paddy as the main crop alongside potato, pulses, oilseeds, and vegetables grown on irrigated fields. A large section of the population works as cultivators and agricultural labourers, backed by tube wells, minor irrigation schemes, and rural markets. Fishing in local ponds and channels adds to livelihoods, while small-scale rural industries, trade, and daily wage work in nearby towns provide supplementary income.
Raina is connected to Bardhaman and other centres by road and rail. The district headquarters at Bardhaman town lies about 19 to 27 km away by road, depending on the route. Kolkata is roughly 100 to 110 km to the east. The nearest rail stations fall in Memari or Bardhaman, linking Raina to the Howrah-Bardhaman main line.
Nearby towns include Memari at about 30 km, Arambagh in Hooghly district at 24 km, Tarakeswar also in Hooghly at 26 km, and Jamalpur within the district at around 11 km. Shyamsundar lies about 5 to 6 km away. Further out, Durgapur is roughly 60 km west and Asansol about 100 km, while towns across the border in Jharkhand, such as Bankura, are over 80 km away.
There is no visible challenge to the Trinamool Congress as it aims for a third straight win in Raina in the 2026 Assembly elections. The Left Front-Congress alliance has faded steadily into irrelevance, while the BJP, despite moving into second place, remains far from popular enough to mount a serious threat or close the gap in vote share. With comfortable margins in both Assembly and Lok Sabha contests, Trinamool enters the next poll as the firm favourite.
(Ajay Jha)
