Balurghat Assembly constituency

Balurghat Assembly constituency is an assembly constituency in Dakshin Dinajpur district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Balurghat
Constituency No. 39 for the West Bengal Legislative Assembly
Interactive Map Outlining Balurghat Assembly Constituency
Constituency details
Country	India
Region	East India
State	West Bengal
District	Dakshin Dinajpur
Lok Sabha constituency	Balurghat
Established	1951
Total electors	180,390
Reservation	None
Member of Legislative Assembly
17th West Bengal Legislative Assembly
Incumbent Ashok Kumar Lahiri
Party	BJP
Alliance	NDA
Elected year	2021

Overview

As per orders of the Delimitation Commission, No. 39 Balurghat Assembly constituency covers Balurghat municipality, Amritakhand, Vatpara and Chingishpur gram panchayats of Balurghat community development block and Hilli community development block.^[1]

Balurghat Assembly constituency is part of No. 6 Balurghat Lok Sabha constituency.^[1]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Election	Member	Party
1951	Saroj Ranjan Chattopadhyay		Indian National Congress[2]
	Lakhsman Chandra Handa[2]
1957	Mardi Hakai[3]
	Dhiren Banerjee		Revolutionary Socialist Party[3][4]
1962	Sushil Ranjan Chattopadhyay		Indian National Congress[5]
1967	Mukul Basu		Independent[6]
1969			Revolutionary Socialist Party[7]
1971	Bireshwar Roy		Indian National Congress[8]
1972[9]
1977	Biswanath Chowdhury		Revolutionary Socialist Party[10]
1982[11]
1987[12]
1991[13]
1996[14]
2001[15]
2006[16]
2011	Sankar Chakraborty		Trinamool Congress[17]
2016	Biswanath Chowdhury		Revolutionary Socialist Party[16]
2021	Ashok Kumar Lahiri		Bharatiya Janata Party

Election results

2021

In the 2021 election, Ashok Kumar Lahiri of BJP defeated his nearest rival Sekhar Dasgupta of Trinamool Congress.

West Bengal assembly elections, 2021: Balurghat constituency

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	BJP	Ashok Kumar Lahiri	72,129	47.42	36.64
	AITC	Sekhar Dasgupta	58,693	38.59	2.2
	RSP	Sucheta Biswas	16,153	10.62	32.2
	NOTA	None of the above	1,830	1.20	1.17
	BSP	Jogesh Chandra Murmu	1,141	0.75	0.43
	AMB	Narottam Saha	810	0.53
	SUCI(C)	Birendra Nath Mahanta	604	0.40	0.65
	BMP	Dulal Barman	379	0.25
	KPPU	Anup Barman	353	0.23
Majority			13,436	8.83	7.8
Turnout			1,52,092
	BJP gain from RSP		Swing

2016

In the 2016 election, Biswanath Chowdhury of RSP defeated his nearest rival Shankar Chakraborty of Trinamool Congress.

West Bengal assembly elections, 2016: Balurghat constituency^[17][18]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	RSP	Biswanath Chowdhury	60,590	42.82	+3.26
	AITC	Sankar Chakraborty	59,140	41.79	−12.48
	BJP	Gautam Chakraborty	15,258	10.78	+7.26
	NOTA	None of the above	3,357	2.37	+2.37
	BSP	Samar Kumar Mahato	1,668	1.18
	SUCI(C)	Biren Mahanta	1,490	1.05
Turnout			141,503	88.10	−1.04
	RSP gain from AITC		Swing	#

2011

In the 2011 election, Shankar Chakraborty of Trinamool Congress defeated his nearest rival Bishwanath Chowdhury of RSP.

West Bengal assembly elections, 2011: Balurghat constituency^[17][19]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	AITC	Sankar Chakraborty	67,495	54.27
	RSP	Biswanath Chowdhury	49,204	39.56	−7.21
	BJP	Ranjan Kumar Mondal	4,378	3.52
	Independent	Keshab Roy	1,862
	BSP	Nripen Hansda	1,427
Turnout			124,366	89.14
	AITC gain from RSP		Swing	#

.# Trinamool Congress did not contest the seat in 2006.

1977–2006

Biswanath Chowdhury of RSP has made it seven in a row winning the Balurghat assembly seat in all years from 1977 to 2006.^[16] Contests in most years were multi cornered but only winners and runners are being mentioned. He defeated Deboshree Choudhury of BJP in 2006, Sankar Chakraborty of Trinamool Congress in 2001,^[15] Biplab Khan of Congress in 1996^[14] and 1991,^[13] Madhab Chandra Roy of Congress in 1987,^[12] Asish Roy of ICS in 1982^[11] and Jyotiswar Sarkar of Congress in 1977.^[10][20]

1951–1972

Bireswar Roy of Congress won in 1972^[9] and 1971.^[8] Mukul Basu of RSP/Independent won in 1969^[7] and 1967.^[6] Sushil Ranjan Chattopadhya of Congress won in 1962.^[5] In 1957 and 1951, Balurghat was joint seat. In 1957^[3] Mardi Hakai of Congress and Dhirendra Nath Banerjee, Independent, won. In independent India's first election, Saroj Ranjan Chattopadhyay and Lakshman Chandra Handa, both of Congress, won.^[2]