Kolkata, May 5: In a closely contested battle during the West Bengal Assembly elections of 2026, Prosenjit Bag of the BJP secured the Jangipara seat in Hooghly district by a mere 862 votes. He defeated the TMC candidate, Snehasis Chakraborty, in a dramatic election outcome.
After 24 rounds of counting, Prosenjit Bag garnered 102,409 votes, while Chakraborty received 101,547 votes. CPI(M) candidate Sudipta Sarkar finished third with 18,138 votes. Voter turnout was impressive, with 91.94% in Jangipara and 91.98% across the Hooghly district.
Prosenjit Bag, aged 50, is a 10th-grade graduate, while Snehasis Chakraborty, 56, holds a postgraduate degree. Sudipta Sarkar, also 56, is a graduate.
The Jangipara Assembly constituency was established in 1957 and falls under the Serampore Lok Sabha constituency. It is primarily rural, with only 8.20% of voters residing in urban areas.
Historically, there have been 16 assembly elections in this constituency. Initially, the main competition was between the Congress and CPI(M), with CPI(M) winning seven times and Congress six. The TMC first captured the seat in 2011.
Snehasis Chakraborty, a state minister, has won three consecutive terms from this seat in 2011, 2016, and 2021. In 2011, he defeated CPI(M) professor Surdashan Roy Chowdhury by 13,076 votes, which increased to 23,605 votes in 2016. In 2021, despite a strong challenge from the BJP, TMC managed to win by 17,926 votes.
The BJP’s presence has steadily grown in the Lok Sabha elections. In 2019, they trailed TMC by 11,932 votes, but this gap widened to 28,020 votes in 2024. Meanwhile, CPI(M)’s influence has been declining.
This election marks a significant breakthrough for the BJP, winning the Jangipara seat by a slim margin, making it a highly competitive constituency moving forward.
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