Medinipur West Bengal Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Voting date, results, candidates, main parties, and schedule

Medinipur West Bengal Lok Sabha Election 2024 - a file photo of Agnimitra Paul as the party candidate of BJP from for Medinipur West Bengal (Photo-PTI)

The Medinipur Lok Sabha constituency, one of the 42 constituencies in West Bengal, is set to go to polls on May 25 in the sixth phase of the elections. The Midnapore region, recognised as Bengal's tribal belt consisting of five districts – Bankura, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Medinipur, Purulia, and Jhargram.

For this year’s Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Agnimitra Paul, the Asansol Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), for Medinipur, a seat previously held by Dilip Ghosh. Ghosh will now contest from the Burdwan-Durgapur constituency.

Paul, a Kolkata-based fashion designer, has seen a rapid rise in the party since her induction by Dilip Ghosh in March 2019. She has been elevated to the rank of party state general secretary.

The AITC has fielded actor-turned-politician and Medinipur MLA June Maliah from this seat. Maliah replaced former Congress-turned-TMC leader Manas Bhunia, who lost the 2019 polls by nearly 89,000 votes.

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The CPI candidate is Biplab Bhatta, who is trying his luck for the second consecutive time.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh won the Medinipur constituency with 685,433 votes, defeating All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) candidate Manas Ranjan Bhunia, who secured 596,481 votes. The total votes cast in the constituency were 1,410,321.

In 2014, AITC’s Sandhya Roy won the Medinipur seat, defeating Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate Prabodh Panda by over 185,128 votes.

Medinipur had been a CPI stronghold until 2014. Sandhya Roy's victory marked the end of CPI’s dominance, with Prabodh Panda representing Medinipur from 2001 until his defeat.

Medinipur is renowned for producing numerous freedom fighters, including Khudiram Bose and Matangini Hazra, social reformers like Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, and patrons of art like Sisir Kumar Bhaduri.