Purulia election results 2026: BJP’s Sudip Kumar Mukherjee wins Purulia by massive 49,253 votes, defeats TMC’s Sujoy Banerjee

In the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026, Sudip Kumar Mukherjee of the Bharatiya Janata Party secured a sweeping victory in Purulia (Assembly Constituency 242), defeating TMC candidate Sujoy Banerjee by a huge margin of 49,253 votes.Mukherjee polled 1,28,454 votes after all 22 rounds of counting, while Banerjee secured 79,201 votes.Purulia (GEN), Assembly Constituency No. 242, is centred on Purulia town, the district headquarters of Puruliya in West Bengal's westernmost region bordering Jharkhand. The constituency encompasses Purulia municipality and surrounding semi-urban and rural blocks, with 243,000+ electors from diverse communities including upper-caste Bengalis, Kurmi-Mahato OBC groups, and SC populations. Purulia town has a small but significant urban middle class of government employees and traders.Key issues include urban unemployment, water scarcity (Purulia is one of Bengal's drier districts), healthcare infrastructure, industrial development of the regional hub, and governance quality. Communal polarization has become a factor in recent election cycles.Historically Left Front, Purulia moved toward BJP by 2019 and consolidated this gain in 2021. Bipolar TMC-BJP contest under relatively lower turnout (83.8per cent). In 2021, BJP's Sudip Kumar Mukherjee defeated TMC by 7,018 votes (~3.4per cent of 204,280 total votes), confirming BJP's urban and semi-urban foothold. A marginal-to-moderate BJP seat; the margin while not massive suggests ongoing competition from TMC. As the district headquarters seat, Purulia carries strong symbolic significance for BJP's claim over the entire Puruliya political landscape under Purulia Lok Sabha.