West Bengal Assembly election 2021, Howrah Uttar profile: Laxmi Ratan Shukla won seat in 2016 on TMC ticket

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

In the 2016 West Bengal Assembly election, the constituency had a total of 1,34,764 registered voters.

Voter turnout in previous election

The voter turnout in Howrah Uttar in the previous Assembly election was 67.98 percent.

Past election results and winners

In the 2016 West Bengal Assembly election, former Indian cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) won the Howrah Uttar seat, netting 61,917 votes compared to his closest rival Santosh Kumar Pathak of the Indian National Congress (INC), who got 34,958 votes.

However, on 5 January 2021, Shukla announced his resignation from the Trinamool Congress. The Howrah North MLA, had written to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee about his decision. The former Indian cricketer will remain an MLA till the term of the State Assembly expires.

Banerjee, who accepted the resignation, said the minister wanted to retire from politics to concentrate on his sports activities.

In 2011 as well, the Howrah Uttar seat was held by the TMC. Asok Ghosh was declared winner after securing 61,466 votes. CPM's Nimai Samanta was the runner up, who lost by a margin of 19,608 votes or 15.71 percent.

Elections for the West Bengal Assembly will be held in eight phases, up from seven last time, beginning with polling for 30 seats on 27 March. The second phase of West Bengal's assembly elections has been scheduled for 1 April and will cover 30 constituencies, followed by the third phase on 6 April for 31 seats, the fourth on 10 April for 44 constituencies, the fifth on 17 April for 45 seats, sixth for 43 seats on 22 April, seventh phase on 26 April for 36 seats and last and eighth phase on 29 April for 35 seats.

The results of the election will be declared on 2 May.