Established in 2011, Saltora has gone to the Assembly polls only three times. The Trinamool Congress began with two comfortable wins, with Swapan Bauri defeating CPI(M)’s Sasthi Charan Bauri by 12,697 votes in 2011 and 12,523 votes in 2016. The BJP, which had been on the margins, captured the seat in 2021 when Chandana Bauri defeated Trinamool’s Santosh Kumar Mondal by 4,145 votes as the CPI(M) slipped to a distant third place.
The BJP’s earlier presence here had been modest, with vote shares of 6.58 per cent in 2009 and 8.16 per cent in 2016. The Trinamool Congress hurt its own prospects by dropping its sitting MLA, Swapan Bauri, and fielding Santosh Mondal in 2021, and the BJP capitalised on that change to move from the fringes to the centre of the contest.
In the Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool and the BJP have traded leads in the Saltora segment. Trinamool led the CPI(M) by 13,256 votes in 2014 after conceding a lead of 10,345 votes to the CPI(M) in 2009, but in 2019 the BJP moved ahead and led Trinamool by 15,056 votes in this segment, only for Trinamool to reverse the picture again in 2024 and finish 11,100 votes ahead of the BJP.
Saltora had 188,606 registered voters in 2011, 212,955 in 2016, 224,150 in 2019, 232,517 in 2021, and 242,924 in 2024. Scheduled Castes form the largest group with 34.70 per cent of voters, Scheduled Tribes account for 10.62 per cent, while Muslims are very few in numbers and have little influence on the result. It is a completely rural constituency with no urban voters on its rolls.
Voter turnout has been consistently high in Saltora. It stood at 86.55 per cent in 2011, 86.40 per cent in 2016, 85.65 per cent in 2019, 87.10 per cent in 2021, and 83.40 per cent in 2024.
Saltora lies in the north-western parts of Bankura district on the uplands that slope down from the Chota Nagpur Plateau. The terrain is uneven with low hills and ridges, the soil is lateritic and reddish, much of it covered with scrub and sal forest.
The local economy rests on a mix of agriculture, mining, and stone quarrying. Farmers grow paddy and some cash crops on the limited cultivable land, but coal mines in Saltora, Mejia and Barjora, and stone quarries in the block provide significant employment, even as they have environmental costs for land and water.
Saltora is linked to the wider industrial belt of south-west Bengal. Coal from the nearby mines feeds power stations and industries across Bankura and adjoining districts, and many residents work as miners, casual labourers, transport workers, and in small service activities around the mining and quarrying clusters.
Saltora is about 45-50 km north of the district headquarters at Bankura town by road, and around 40-45 km south of Asansol. It lies roughly 45-50 km from Durgapur, about 25-30 km from Adra and Raghunathpur, and around 55-60 km from Kulti, placing it in the belt that links Bankura district to the Asansol-Durgapur industrial region.
The nearest major railway links are at Asansol Junction and Burnpur, about 19-21 km away, which connect Saltora’s catchment area to Howrah, Dhanbad, Delhi, and other parts of the country. Kolkata, the state capital, is roughly 220 km away by road.
Other accessible district headquarters include Purulia, around 70-80 km away, while just across the Jharkhand border, Jamtara and Dhanbad lie at a distance of roughly 80-100 km from Saltora, tying it to the broader coal and industrial belt of south-west Bengal and adjoining Jharkhand.
Saltora’s political story is a familiar one in present-day rural Bankura: the Trinamool Congress as the initial dominant force, the BJP rising from the margins to become its main opponent, and the Left Front-Congress alliance getting pushed to the edge of the contest. Trinamool had a difficult phase when it trailed the BJP by 7.90 percentage points in 2019 in the Lok Sabha contest and then lost the Assembly seat in 2021 by two percentage points, but it now has reasons to believe it can reclaim the seat in 2026 after regaining an 11,100-vote lead in 2024.
The BJP, on the other hand, will draw confidence from its strong showings in 2019 and 2021 and is likely to treat 2024 as an outcome that can be reversed, especially with its growing appeal among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe voters nationally and in Bankura and adjoining areas. The stage is set for a fierce contest between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in 2026, with the weakened Left Front-Congress alliance playing only a minor but possibly colourful supporting role.
(Ajay Jha)
