West Bengal Assembly election 2021, Sitai profile: TMC's Jagadish Chandra Barma won seat in 2016

The Assembly/Vidhan Sabha constituency of Sitai is located in the Cooch Behar district of West Bengal. It falls under the Cooch Behar (SC) Lok Sabha constituency.

The constituency, reserved for Scheduled Castes candidates, has 2,76,958 electors and 293polling stations.

Voter turnout in previous election

The voter turnout in Sitai in the previous Assembly election was 83.14 percent, 52.37 percent of which were males and 47.63 percent were female voters.

Past election results and winners
In the 2016 West Bengal Assembly election, Jagadish Chandra Barma of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) won the Sitai seat. The TMC, BJP and Congress got 47.39 percent, 12.74 percent and 35.82 percent votes respectively in the 2016 polls.

The Sitai 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).

As per the estimates of 2011 Census, out of total 3,34,257-strong population, all is rural. The Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) are 50.56 and 0.38 percent respectively of the total population.

Clashes around the time of conduct of polls have often been witnessed in Sitai, the last one in December, when TMC and BJP party activists clashed, leaving over 12 workers wounded. The incident occurred during a BJP rally led by MP Nisith Pramanik and state BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu. Around the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, four BJP supporters were attacked at Sitai in the district, with one of them being shot at by suspected TMC supporters while three others were beaten up.

Basunia is among the TMC leaders who spoke in support of Mihir Goswami, the Cooch Behar South MLA who joined the BJP, amid rumblings within the party against internal changes made at the recommendation of election strategist Prashant Kishor.