West Bengal Assembly election 2021, Cooch Behar Dakshin profile: TMC suffers a blow as sitting MLA defects to BJP

The Assembly/Vidhan Sabha constituency of Cooch Behar Dakshin is located in the Cooch Behar district of West Bengal. It falls under the Cooch Behar (SC) Lok Sabha constituency. The constituency has 2,23,026 electors and 255 polling stations. Voter turnout in previous election The voter turnout in Cooch Behar Dakshin in the previous Assembly election was 84.13 percent. Past election results and winners In the 2016 West Bengal Assembly election, Mihir Goswami of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) won the Cooch Behar Dakshin seat, securing over 82,849 votes. All India Forward Bloc’s Akshay Thakur won the seat in the 2011 assembly elections, while Congress held the seat between 1969 and 1979. As per the estimates of 2011 Census, out of total 2,87,879-strong population, 72.93 percent is rural and 27.07 percent is urban. As per orders of the Delimitation Commission, Cooch Behar Dakshin (Vidhan Sabha constituency) covers Cooch Behar municipality and Chandamari, Chilkirhat, Falimari, Ghughumari, Haribhanga, Moyamari, Patchhara, Putimari Fuleswari and Suktabari gram panchayats of Cooch Behar I community development block. The AITC suffered a blow when Goswami defected to the BJP in November last year, stating in a Facebook post that the party’s reins are not in the hands of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee anymore. He also resigned from all organisational posts of the of the party and accused election strategist Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC, which is handling Banerjee’s re-election bid, of ruining the party. Goswami has held several administrative posts, including helming Jaigaon Development Authority and North Bengal State Transport Corporation. The Cooch Behar Dakshin Assembly constituency is expected to go to polls in April or May 2021, as part of the West Bengal Assembly election 2021. The West Bengal Assembly polls will be held to elect a total of 294 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs).