Uluberia Purba, a general category Assembly constituency, was created on the Delimitation CommissionтАЩs orders in 2006 and came into effect from the 2009 Lok Sabha and 2011 Assembly elections. Uluberia has a complex electoral history. It was first set up as a twin-seat Assembly constituency in 1951, which remained in place until 1957. From the 1962 elections, it was split into Uluberia North and Uluberia South Assembly constituencies. Both these seats were dissolved ahead of the 2011 election and replaced by three constituencies, Uluberia Uttar, Uluberia Dakshin and Uluberia Purba, to give fairer representation to the changed population. This redrawing proved a boon for the Trinamool Congress, which has been winning all three seats since 2011.
Uluberia Purba constituency comprises the entire Uluberia municipality, along with Khalisani and Raghudevpur gram panchayats of the Uluberia II community development block, making it an overwhelmingly urban seat with only a small sprinkling of rural voters. Uluberia itself is a subdivision headquarters of the Howrah district and forms part of the Kolkata Metropolitan Area.
Haider Aziz Safwi, a former IPS officer of the Bengal cadre and originally from Uttar Pradesh, was the first Trinamool Congress candidate from Uluberia Purba. He defeated Mohan Mondal of the CPI(M) by 19,584 votes in 2011 and retained the seat in 2016 by defeating Sabiruddin Molla by 16,269 votes. Safwi, who served as a minister in the Mamata Banerjee government and was associated with reforms in cooperatives and prisons, was later made deputy speaker of the Assembly in 2016, a post he held until his sudden death in 2018, which led to a by-election.
The 2019 by-election was won by Idris Ali, a former MP, who defeated Pratyush Mandal of the BJP by 15,791 votes. Ali was shifted to another constituency in 2021, when the Trinamool Congress fielded Bidesh Ranjan Bose, a former India international footballer, as its candidate in Uluberia Purba. Bose faced Pratyush Mandal of the BJP and won by 17,126 votes, keeping TrinamoolтАЩs record intact while confirming the BJP as the main challenger.
In many ways, the Trinamool Congress continues to benefit from the work done by Haider Aziz Safwi in building up the constituency, which earned him the moniker Uluberiar Roopkar, the man who built Uluberia. He was closely involved with the setting up or improvement of Uluberia Stadium, a railway overbridge, Uluberia Super Speciality Hospital, a major drinking water project, new and upgraded roads, drainage, street lighting, CCTV in schools, public toilets and creation or redevelopment of cremation and burial facilities across the town.
Parliamentary voting trends in the Uluberia Purba Assembly segment broadly mirror this pro-Trinamool mood. Trinamool led the CPI(M) by 16,874 votes here in the 2009 Lok Sabha election and by 14,767 votes in 2014. Since then, the BJP has moved into second place without dislodging Trinamool. The party led the BJP by 19,788 votes in 2019 and 24,426 votes in 2024 from the Uluberia Purba segment.
Uluberia Purba had 241,689 registered voters in 2024, up from 233,764 in 2021, 220,397 in 2019, 205,989 in 2016 and 176,922 in 2011. It is a Muslim-dominated seat, with Muslims forming 41.40 per cent of the electorate, while the Scheduled Castes account for 13.71 per cent. About 96.71 per cent of its voters live in Uluberia town, with the two gram panchayats contributing the remaining 3.29 per cent as rural voters. Voter turnout has been strong and fairly steady, at 83.88 per cent in 2011, 83.14 per cent in 2016, 81.07 per cent in 2019, 82.63 per cent in 2021 and 78.34 per cent in 2024.
Uluberia town is located in the south western part of Howrah district, on the southern bank of the Hooghly River. It lies in the flat, alluvial plains of the lower Ganga system, with fertile soil and a typical deltaic terrain that is criss-crossed by small channels and prone to waterlogging in low lying pockets during heavy rain. The broader belt forms part of the Hooghly industrial region, one of the oldest industrial belts in India, with jute, engineering, transport and service sector units spread along the riverfront.
Historically, Uluberia grew as a riverine and rail-linked town tied to Kolkata, with its position on the Hooghly and along key rail and road lines making it a natural trade and transit point between the metropolis and the interior of south Bengal. Over time, it has become known for its industrial clusters, transport hubs and educational and health institutions that serve the surrounding rural and semi-urban belt.
Uluberia enjoys strong rail and road connectivity. It lies on the Howrah-Kharagpur section of the South Eastern Railway, with frequent suburban trains linking Uluberia station to Howrah in about one hour. By road, Uluberia is situated along National Highway 16, earlier known as the Bombay Road, placing it roughly 35 to 40 km from central Kolkata via Howrah and about 30 to 35 km from Howrah city itself. Bus services, local autos and taxis connect the town to nearby blocks and to the greater Kolkata urban spread.
Within the Howrah district, other towns such as Bagnan and Shyampur fall within an approximate 20 to 40 km radius. Across the Hooghly, towns like Serampore and Chandannagar in the Hooghly district are within 40 to 60 km by road and bridge connections. Further west, the industrial city of Kharagpur in Paschim Medinipur lies roughly 80 to 90 km away by rail and road, along the same corridor. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata is around 50 to 60 km from Uluberia by road.
Trinamool Congress goes into the 2026 Assembly election in Uluberia Purba with a clear edge, backed by victories in all four Assembly elections and leads in all four parliamentary polls since the constituency came into being. This record, however, carries the risk of complacency, as its victory margins have been solid rather than overwhelming. The Left Front-Congress alliance is not fully marginalised here, and any revival could hurt the Trinamool Congress by splitting its core Muslim vote base, something the BJP would quietly hope for, along with further consolidation of Hindu voters behind it. If neither of these shifts materialises, the Trinamool Congress remains well-placed to register a fifth consecutive victory from Uluberia Purba in the 2026 Assembly elections.
(Ajay Jha)
