West Bengal Election 2026: Can Chandrima Bhattacharya Retain Dum Dum Uttar?

Trinamool Congress politician Chandrima Bhattacharya is eying another term from the Dum Dum Uttar seat in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.

Counted among Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's confidantes, Bhattacharya is pitted against Saurav Sikdar, the nephew of senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Tapan Sikdar, and CPM leader Dipsita Dhar.

Education

Bhattacharya, 71, completed her Bachelor's in Commerce in 1972 and LLB in 1976 from Calcutta University. She was enrolled as an advocate with the West Bengal Bar Council on September 20, 1978. She began practising as an advocate at the Calcutta High Court in 1978 and continued until 2011.

Political Career

Bhattacharya was a Congress member who served as the general secretary of the South Kolkata district. She was also a member of the PCC and AICC before parting ways with the party in 2008.

She grew close to Mamata Banerjee during the Singur and Nandigram agitations. In 2009, she joined the Trinamool Congress and was named the president of the party's women's wing. Last year, she was appointed as the chairperson of the AITC legal cell for West Bengal.

Over the past few years, Bhattacharya has held several key portfolios in the Mamata Banerjee-led cabinet.

She is the minister for urban development and municipal affairs, health & family welfare, and land & land reforms, as well as refugee rehabilitation.

Bhattacharya came into the spotlight when she won from the Dum Dum Uttar seat in the 2011 Assembly elections in West Bengal, defeating the then CPM candidate Rekha Goswami. She failed to retain the seat in the 2016 polls, losing to CPM's Tanmoy Bhattacharya.

In 2017, she contested the Kanthi Dakshin bypoll and won against the BJP's Sourindramohan Jana. The seat fell vacant when Dibyendu Adhikari was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tamluk.

In the 2021 Assembly election, Bhattacharya registered a comeback win in Dum Dum Uttar, overcoming Archana Majumdar of the BJP.