TMC confident of win in Chowringhee despite SIR deletions
The Statesman | 15 April 2026
Chowringhee Assembly Constituency is headed for a tough two-cornered battle between continuity and a wave of change, this election.
The constituency is one of the most urban seats accommodated by various sections ~ traders and businessmen, upper and lower middle class, migrants from the neighbouring state of Bihar and Jharkhand along with a good number of minorities, including Muslims, Christians Parsees and Chinese.
The high profile seat has been a stronghold of Trinamul Congress since the past few years with the sitting MLA Nayna Bandyopadhyay winning it three times.
In the last Assembly elections held in 2021, the TMC got 62.8 per cent votes bagging around 70,000 votes. On the other hand, the BJP candidate Devdutta Maji had bagged around 22.2 per cent, counting up to 24.7 thousand votes.
According to reports, till mid December, Chowrangee had 2,10,246 voters, of which 74,553 (about 35.46 per cent) were flagged for deletion under categories comprising untraceable, shifted and dead voters. After the Supplementary List became public, Chowringhee was depleted with 73.3 per cent of adjudicated voters.
In 2021, the TMC candidate registered a massive win with a margin of around 45,000 votes. However, with the Special Intensive Revision in effect that has depleted a considerable chunk of the voters the ruling party is expected to face a tough battle ahead. According to some of the local party supporters, Santosh Pathak who fought the last Assembly polls as a Congress Candidate bagging 14.2 thousand votes recently, joined BJP and could affect the poll logarithm this time. The seat that also has a considerable count of Hindi-speaking population, could bring a tough battle from the BJP candidate Santosh Pathak for his TMC opponent.
Despite the deletions, the TMC candidate is confident of emerging as a winner. A party veteran and always available in the joys and sorrows of the electorate for decades ~ are two of the strongest factors for the TMC candidate. For her BJP opponent, a strong base in his own ward, coupled with the saffron party supporters, are being seen as game changer in the forthcoming polls.
The seat having a good number of mixed population including a strong businessmen base in the central business district, non-Bengali Hindus and Muslims, Anglo Indians in the Bow Barracks, Chinese, Parsis among others, is headed for a two cornered fight in the forthcoming polls.
With veteran candidates contesting the TMC and the BJP, both the parties are said to have a strong base on the ground. “Our MLA is always there for us. Not only in times of mishaps, but also during festivities, she is with us,” said a section of traders in the CBD. Another section said: “Santosh Bhai has stood with us for long. The way he has sustained these many years, his strong-headedness would be an advantage for us.”