Para (SC) election results 2026: BJP’s Nadiar Chand Bouri defeats TMC’s Manik Chandra Bauri

In the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026, Nadiar Chand Bouri of the Bharatiya Janata Party secured a comfortable victory in Para (Assembly Constituency 245), defeating TMC candidate Manik Chandra Bauri by a margin of 33,721 votes.Bauri polled 1,13,488 votes after all 23 rounds of counting, while Manik Chandra Bauri secured 79,767 votes.Para (SC), Assembly Constituency No. 245, is situated in Puruliya district in South Bengal, within the Raghunathpur sub-division. Covering Para community development block and surrounding areas, the constituency lies on laterite uplands with a primarily rural SC-reserved character. The over 231,000 electors are predominantly from Scheduled Caste communities (Bauri, Bagdi, and related groups) engaged in agrarian labour, marginal farming, and migrant work. Key voter concerns include agricultural distress from erratic monsoons, MGNREGA implementation, housing under welfare schemes, access to education and healthcare, drinking water scarcity during summer months, and protection from bonded labour practices.Anti-incumbency against both Left and TMC governments has allowed BJP to penetrate this traditionally reserved-seat territory. A historically Left Front-leaning reserved constituency now in the thick of BJP-TMC bipolar contest. Turnout at 82.2per cent with polarized SC-community voting under Purulia Lok Sabha. In 2021, BJP's Nadiar Chand Bouri defeated TMC by 4,007 votes (~2.1per cent margin from 190,364 total votes)—a razor-thin result. An extremely marginal BJP seat; the wafer-thin ~4,000-vote margin makes Para highly vulnerable in 2026. Central to TMC's SC-community recapture strategy in Puruliya and to BJP's defence of its Purulia Lok Sabha gains.