West Bengal Assembly election 2021, Dhanekhali profile: TMC's Asima Patra currently represents constituency

Dhanekhali is an Assembly/Vidhan Sabha constituency in the Hooghly district of West Bengal. It falls under the Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency.

In the 2016 West Bengal Assembly election, the constituency had a total of 2,17,810 registered voters.

As per orders of the Delimitation Commission, Dhaniakhali constituency is composed of Belmuri, Bhastara, Dashghara I, Dashghara II, Dhaniakhali I, Dhaniakhali II, Gurap, Gurbari I, Gurbari II, Khajurdaha Milki, Mandra, Somaspur I and Somaspur II gram panchayats of Dhaniakhali community development block, and Babnan, Dadpur, Makalpur and Satithan gram panchayats of Polba-Dadpur community development block.

Voter turnout in previous election

The voter turnout in Dhanekhali in the previous Assembly election was 87.16 percent.

Past election results and winners

In the 2016 Assembly polls, Asima Patra of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) was declared the winner from Dhanekhali Assembly seat. She secured 1,25,298 votes as against 66,654 votes won by her closest rival Pradip Majumdar of the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB).

In 2011 as well, the TMC retained the seat. Patra was pitted against AIFB's Shrabani Sarkar, who lost the electoral battle by a margin of 16,277 votes or 8.29 percent.

On 26 February, the Election Commission announced the schedule for Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry.

The voting will begin on 27 March, with Bengal having the maximum eight phases continuing till 29 April, the poll body had said.

The election will be held to elect a total of 294 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs).

The state is held by the AITC with an absolute majority, with Mamata Banerjee on her second consecutive term as chief minister. The ruling party is fighting a pitched battle with archrival BJP, while the Congress-led alliance is also a key player in the fray.