West Bengal Assembly election 2021, Maynaguri profile: TMC's Ananta Deb Adhikari seeks third term

The Assembly/Vidhan Sabha constituency of Maynaguri is located in the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal. It falls under the Jalpaiguri (SC) Lok Sabha constituency. The constituency, reserved for Scheduled Castes candidates, has 2,50,769 electors and 272 polling stations. Voter turnout in previous election The voter turnout in Maynaguri in the previous Assembly election was 89.12 percent. Past election results and winners In the 2016 West Bengal Assembly election, Ananta Deb Adhikari of the Trinamool Congress won the Maynaguri seat, securing 1,00,837 votes. A retired teacher, Adhikari won the Maynaguri seat as a Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) candidate in 2011. The RSP held the seat between 1977 and 2011. Adhikari, along with Rajganj MLA Khageswar Roy, had threatened to quit the party in March over complaints of being ignored by KK Kalyani, the Jalpaiguri district party chief. According to them, Kalyani was made the new district president last year and the district committee, block committees and the anchal (panchayat-level) committees were dissolved, and no committees were constituted since then. In December, Adhikari said the “organisational strength of TMC was “greatly hampered” ever since I-PAC strategist Prashant Kishor took reign of the party’s poll campaign. “His team created division and gave rise to factionalism,” he said. Meanwhile, the CPI(ML) announced that it will contest from Maynaguri independently and not as alliance partners with the Left Front-Congress. The death of a TMC leader triggered tension in the constituency. Four persons were arrested in connection with the killing, for which TMC held the BJP responsible. As per the estimates of 2011 Census, out of total 3,29,389-strong population, 88.48 percent is rural and 11.52 percent is urban. The Maynaguri 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).