At 105%, N Dinajpur records highest voter surge, followed by Malda & Murshidabad
Times of India | 24 November 2025
Kolkata: North Dinajpur, spread across 3,180 sqkm and flanked by Bangladesh and Bihar, has witnessed a staggering 105.4% growth in voters in the last 23 years, the highest in Bengal.
Malda and Murshidabad, among the other Bengal districts bordering Bangladesh, have recorded the second and third highest voter surge during the period.
Malda, which shares a 168-km border with Bangladesh, has seen an increase of 94.5% — from 16.3 lakh voters in 2002 to 32 lakh in 2025. The district, which was a bastion of former Congress heavyweight, the late ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, has seen a formidable BJP growth.
Murshidabad, which has a 216.7-km border with Bangladesh, recorded a voter growth of 87.6% over the past 23 years — from 30.6 lakh to 57.4 lakh.
The number of electors in the state has grown from 4.5 crore in 2002 to 7.6 crore in 2025, a rise of around 67%.
Several belts with a voter surge in these 23 years have also seen a significant rise in BJP's influence.
BJP won the two parliamentary seats in North Dinajpur — Raiganj and Balurghat — in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls with more than 40% vote share. A BJP-Trinamool binary in the two LS elections relegated Congress, which once held sway over the district that was known as the Dasmunsi turf, to a distant third with less than 20% vote share.
A comparative analysis of the electoral rolls prepared after the 2002 special intensive revision and the 2025 list shows the number of voters in the district has shot from 11.2 lakh to 23 lakh.
According to EC officials, districts bordering Bangladesh have witnessed an above-average voter growth compared to the rest of Bengal. Among them, North Dinajpur, which shares a 227-km border with Bangladesh, has had the maximum growth. The district also has the longest border with Bihar compared with other Bengal districts.
North Dinajpur borders Panchagarh, Thakurgaon and Dinajpur districts of Bangladesh on the east, and Kishanganj, Purnia and Katihar districts of Bihar on the west.
Jalpaiguri, which shares a 120-km border with Bangladesh, has recorded an 82.3% growth in voter count — from 17.5 lakh in 2002 to 31.9 lakh now.
Cooch Behar, which has a 594.5-km border with Bangladesh (the longest among all Bengal districts), has witnessed a 76.5% growth — from 14 lakh to 24.7 lakh. South Dinajpur, whose border with Bangladesh stretches 267 km, has seen a growth of around 70.9% — from 7.7 lakh to 13.1 lakh.
Like Malda and North Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and South Dinajpur, too, have witnessed a rapid BJP growth, contributing heavily to the party's impressive wins in north Bengal in the 2021 assembly polls.
South Bengal districts bordering Bangladesh, where Trinamool has a stronger presence than BJP, have also seen a noticeable growth in the number of voters, but at a slower pace than some north Bengal districts.
South 24 Parganas, which shares a 63-km riverine border with Bangladesh, mostly in the Sunderbans, has seen an 83.3% rise in voter count, from 46.8 lakh to 85.8 lakh.
North 24 Parganas, which shares a 313-km border with Bangladesh, has seen a growth of 72.1% — from 47 lakh voters in 2002 to 82.8 lakh voters now. The district has 33 assembly constituencies, the highest in Bengal. Nadia, whose border with Bangladesh extends 217km, has recorded a growth of 71.4%. The district's voter count has risen from 25.7 lakh in 2002 to 44.1 lakh in 2025.