Established in 1962, Ranibandh has gone to the polls 15 times so far. The CPI(M) has been the most successful force here with nine wins, while the undivided CPI has won once. The Congress and the Trinamool Congress have won the seat twice each, and an Independent candidate has won once.
In 2011, Deblina Hembram of the CPI(M) retained the seat by defeating Trinamool Congress’s Falguni Hembram by 6,859 votes. The Trinamool wrested the seat in 2016, when Jyotsna Mandi defeated Deblina Marandi of the CPI(M) by 23,313 votes. Mandi held on in 2021, but with a much narrower margin, defeating the BJP’s Khudiram Tudu by 3,939 votes, with the BJP emerging as the main challenger.
Lok Sabha results in the Ranibandh Assembly segment reflect the shifts in party strength over time. In 2009, the CPI(M) led the Congress by 31,613 votes. In 2014, the Trinamool Congress moved ahead, leading the CPI(M) by 19,171 votes. The BJP then surged in 2019, leading the Trinamool by 15,814 votes, before the Trinamool regained the upper hand in 2024, when it led the BJP by 5,752 votes.
After the 2025 Special Intensive Revision, Ranibandh had 253,141 voters on the draft electoral roll, marking a decline of 10,575 from 263,716 voters in 2024. Earlier, the electorate stood at 255,359 in 2021, 244,233 in 2019, 231,387 in 2016 and 191,664 in 2011. Scheduled Tribes form the largest bloc with 33.01 per cent of the voters, while Scheduled Castes account for 21.07 per cent. Muslims have only a minuscule presence in this seat. Ranibandh is overwhelmingly rural, with 96.11 per cent of voters living in villages and only 3.89 per cent in urban pockets. Turnout has been high and steady, at 80.80 per cent in 2011, 83.93 per cent in 2016, 83.25 per cent in 2019, 83.51 per cent in 2021 and 81.30 per cent in 2024.
Ranibandh lies in the Khatra subdivision in the southern part of Bankura district, within the old Bishnupur kingdom’s sphere of influence. For nearly a thousand years, up to the arrival of British rule, the history of this region overlapped with the rise and fall of the Malla Rajas of Bishnupur, whose power declined in the 18th century after Maratha raids and territorial losses to Burdwan. The area today forms part of the forested fringe of the Chota Nagpur Plateau, with a strong presence of Santhal and other tribal communities.
The topography of Ranibandh is markedly different from the low-lying alluvial plains of eastern Bankura. It consists of undulating uplands and scattered low hills, with red and lateritic soils that are less fertile and more erosion-prone than the riverine tracts to the east. The wider district is drained by rivers such as the Kangsabati, Damodar and Dwarakeswar and their tributaries, including Gandeshwari, Silai and Kumari, which influence agriculture and water availability in this belt. Forest cover, upland paddy fields and scrub land dominate much of the landscape in and around Ranibandh.
The local economy is driven by subsistence and smallholder agriculture, forest-based livelihoods and migration. Farmers grow paddy, coarse grains and some pulses, but yields are constrained by soil and water conditions, and many households depend on minor forest produce, wage labour and seasonal migration to more industrialised or urban areas. Studies of socio-economic indicators place Ranibandh among the more underdeveloped blocks of Bankura, with significant deficits in income, infrastructure and access to services compared to the district’s better-off areas.
Ranibandh is linked to the rest of Bankura district by road. The block headquarters lies around 60 to 70 km south of Bankura town, the district headquarters. Buses and smaller vehicles connect Ranibandh with Bankura, Khatra and other block towns, though journey times can be long because of road conditions. Rail connectivity is indirect. Residents typically travel to Bankura, Bishnupur or other stations on the South Eastern Railway network to board long-distance trains. The state capital, Kolkata, is roughly 200 to 220 km away by road, via Bankura or Bishnupur…
Nearby urban centres include Khatra, the subdivision hub, and other small towns and census towns in Bankura district, which provide secondary schools, health centres and markets for Ranibandh’s villagers. Further west and south-west, Jhargram and parts of Purulia and Paschim Medinipur districts lie within a wider travel radius and form part of the out-migration corridor for work-seekers from this belt. To the south-west, the Jharkhand border is not very distant in regional terms, but there are no large cross-border towns immediately adjacent to Ranibandh.
The SIR-driven deletion of 10,575 voters introduces a new element of uncertainty to a constituency where voters have already demonstrated a willingness to shift their preferences. With Muslims present only in very small numbers, it is not clear which party’s support base is most affected by the deletions. The key to success will lie in winning the confidence of the ST and SC communities that together make up more than half the electorate. The BJP led in the 2019 Lok Sabha election in this segment and pushed the Trinamool close in both the 2021 Assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha polls, trailing by only about 1.90 percentage points in 2021 and 2.70 percentage points in 2024.
The Left Front-Congress alliance appears to be stuck at just under 10 per cent of the vote, which limits its ability to decisively alter the outcome, even if it marginally improves. All signs point to a direct, high-stakes contest between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP, with the Left-Congress alliance adding some colour and texture without fundamentally changing the two-cornered nature of the race.
(Ajay Jha)
