Kashipur-Belgachhia election results 2026: BJP’s Ritesh Tiwari edges past TMC’s Atin Ghosh in tight West Bengal contest

In the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election for Kashipur-Belgachhia (168), Ritesh Tiwari of the Bharatiya Janata Party secured a narrow victory with 68,368 votes, defeating All India Trinamool Congress candidate Atin Ghosh, who polled 66,717 votes. The BJP won by a slim margin of 1,651 votes in one of the closest contests of the constituency. CPI(M)’s Rajendra Gupta finished third with 11,151 votes, while Congress and other independent candidates remained far behind. NOTA recorded 1,250 votes.Kashipur-Belgachhia, constituency number 168, is a wholly urban seat in the Kolkata district, falling under the Kolkata Uttar Lok Sabha constituency. In 2026, sitting TMC MLA Atin Ghosh seeks re-election, facing BJP's Ritesh Tiwari. The constituency covers wards 1 to 6 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, encompassing the neighbourhoods of Kashipur, Belgachhia and parts of Cossipore in the northern reaches of the city.In 2021, Atin Ghosh won the seat for the TMC, defeating BJP's Sibaji Sinha Roy by approximately 35,390 votes, polling around 56 per cent of valid votes. It was a comfortable victory that underlined the TMC's strong hold on this predominantly working-class urban constituency. In 2016, the TMC's Mala Saha held the seat, winning against the CPI(M) candidate by nearly 24,979 votes, again reflecting the party's dominance in north Kolkata. Mala Saha had also won the inaugural 2011 election from the seat by a large margin.Kashipur-Belgachhia is a relatively new constituency, formed following the 2008 delimitation exercise from the earlier Cossipore and Belgachhia segments. It is entirely urban with a small but notable Scheduled Caste population. Voter turnout is modest at around 60 per cent. The 2024 Lok Sabha polling showed the BJP narrowing the gap significantly, polling over 40 per cent in this segment, which makes the 2026 contest considerably more competitive than previous assembly results suggest.