NEW DELHI: In West Bengal’s Nowda, AJUP’s Humayun Kabir emerged as the winner, defeating BJP’s Rana Mandal by 27,943 votes. Humayun Kabir received 86,463 votes, while Rana Mandal secured 58,520 votes. There were a total of 2,35,737 registered voters on the electoral rolls for the 2026 Assembly election in Nowda Assembly constituency, of whom 1,22,837 were male, 1,12,898 female and 2 belonged to the third gender.West Bengal voted across 294 seats in two phases on April 23 and April 29, recording a combined turnout of nearly 93 per cent — the highest since Independence and one of the largest in Indian electoral history. Notably, the surge was not limited to rural strongholds but saw a dramatic rise in urban centres, with women voters outpacing men to drive the record participation.Nowda is an important legislative assembly constituency in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district. It is a general category seat and one of the seven assembly segments that make up the Baharampur Lok Sabha constituency.In the 2021 assembly elections, the seat was won by the All India Trinamool Congress. Trinamool candidate Sahina Mamtaz Begum (Khan) defeated Bharatiya Janata Party’s Anupam Mandal by a margin of 74,153 votes.Lok Sabha election trends in the Nowda segment show a strong contest between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress. The Congress led the RSP here by 7,638 votes in 2009 and by 40,299 votes in 2014. However, the Trinamool Congress moved ahead in later years, leading the Congress by 2,880 votes in 2019 and expanding the margin to 19,916 votes in 2024.The constituency had 255,618 registered voters in 2024, an increase from 247,688 in 2021 and 234,215 in 2019. Muslims constitute around 66 per cent of the electorate, while Scheduled Castes account for 6.30 per cent and Scheduled Tribes for 0.51 per cent. The constituency is entirely rural, with no urban voters. Although turnout has gradually declined, participation remains high, with voter turnout recorded at 85.10 per cent in 2011, 83.26 per cent in 2016, 80.17 per cent in 2019, 81.87 per cent in 2021 and 79.35 per cent in 2024.
