Raiganj, the administrative headquarters of Uttar Dinajpur district, is a general category Assembly constituency that has been part of West Bengal’s electoral map since 1951. It is one of the seven segments under the Raiganj Lok Sabha seat. The constituency comprises the entire Raiganj municipality and five gram panchayats – Bahin, Maraikup, Gouri, Kamalabati I and Kamalabati II – of the Raiganj community development block, making it a blend of urban and rural voters.
Over the course of 18 Assembly elections, including the 2024 by-election, Raiganj has largely been a stronghold of the Congress party. The party won 10 times, including a remarkable run of five consecutive victories between 1996 and 2016. These wins came even during the height of CPI(M)’s dominance in the state and continued into the early years of Trinamool Congress’s rule. However, the tide turned in 2021 when the BJP made its debut in the constituency, with Krishna Kalyani defeating Trinamool’s Kanaia Lal Agarwal by 20,748 votes. Agarwal, a well-known businessman, had switched from Trinamool to BJP just before the polls, only to return to Trinamool after winning. His defection triggered a by-election in 2024, which he won convincingly as a Trinamool candidate, defeating BJP’s Manas Kumar Ghosh by 50,077 votes, thus marking Trinamool’s first-ever victory in Raiganj.