Raninagar election results 2026: Congress’ Julfikar Ali edges past TMC’s Abdul Soumik Hossain in West Bengal

In the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election for Raninagar (63), Julfikar Ali of the Indian National Congress secured a narrow victory with 79,423 votes, defeating All India Trinamool Congress candidate Abdul Soumik Hossain, who polled 76,722 votes. Congress won by a slim margin of 2,701 votes in a closely contested seat. CPI(M)’s Jamal Hossain finished third with 48,587 votes, while BJP and other candidates trailed behind. NOTA recorded 2,240 votes.Raninagar, constituency number 63 in Murshidabad district, falls under the Murshidabad Lok Sabha seat. In 2026, TMC has named Samir Kumar Poddar as its candidate against BJP's Sukanta Biswas in this Muslim-majority rural constituency where Congress has historically been a dominant force.In 2021, TMC's Abdul Soumik Hossain won decisively, defeating Congress's Firoza Begam by approximately 79,702 votes, with the TMC polling close to 61 per cent. It was a dramatic reversal of fortune for the seat. In 2016, Firoza Begam of the Congress had won here, defeating the TMC's Dr Humayun Kabir. Congress retained strong support in Murshidabad in 2016 when it polled over 58 per cent, reflecting the district's tradition of supporting the grand old party.The shift from Congress to TMC dominance between 2016 and 2021 was part of a broader consolidation of Muslim votes behind the TMC following the BJP's rise and the political realignments of that period. Raninagar has an overwhelmingly rural electorate with a relatively small Scheduled Caste population. With Congress still polling a significant vote share in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections here, the constituency remains three-cornered in character, with the BJP playing a limited role. The 2026 contest could again test whether Congress can recover any ground it ceded to the TMC.