18th Lok Sabha Election 2024 in West Bengal: Party Position and Elected Members

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18th Lok Sabha Election in West Bengal: AITC 29, BJP 12, Congress 1

The General Election to the 18th Lok Sabha in 2024 occupies a significant position in the electoral history of West Bengal, not merely because of the distribution of its forty-two parliamentary constituencies, but because the result demonstrated the consolidation of a new three-layered electoral structure in the state: the continuing predominance of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), the substantial but reduced parliamentary presence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the survival of the Indian National Congress (INC) in a single constituency. The election was held in seven phases from 19 April to 1 June 2024, with counting conducted on 4 June 2024. West Bengal’s forty-two constituencies constituted one of the most politically consequential parliamentary blocs in eastern India. The final distribution was AITC 29, BJP 12 and INC 1.

The 2024 result is best understood against the transformation of Bengal’s party system during the preceding three decades. From 1977 to 2011, the principal axis of electoral competition was structured around the Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), against the Congress and subsequently the Trinamool Congress. The change initiated by the 2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, when the AITC displaced the Left Front after thirty-four years of uninterrupted rule, gradually produced a different political configuration. The 2014 Lok Sabha election established the BJP as an expanding parliamentary force; the 2019 election brought the transformation into sharp relief, with the BJP winning 18 of West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats, while the AITC won 22. The 2024 election therefore represented not the disappearance of the BJP’s Bengal base, but a reversal of the extraordinary seat expansion it had achieved in 2019. AITC increased its parliamentary representation from 22 to 29, BJP declined from 18 to 12, and Congress declined from two seats to one.

The geographical character of the 2024 result is particularly important. The AITC’s 29 constituencies extended across almost the entire territorial structure of the state, including the Ganga-Brahmaputra borderland of North Bengal, Murshidabad and Nadia, the industrial districts of southern Bengal, Kolkata and its metropolitan periphery, the Hooghly-Howrah region, the coastal and deltaic districts, and substantial portions of western Bengal. The party’s representation was consequently not confined to a particular linguistic, economic or geographical belt. Its parliamentary bloc incorporated both predominantly urban constituencies and agrarian constituencies, reserved constituencies and general constituencies, metropolitan seats and geographically remote constituencies.

In Cooch Behar, Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia was elected; Abu Taher Khan represented Murshidabad and Khalilur Rahaman Jangipur. Yusuf Pathan, entering parliamentary politics after an internationally recognised career in cricket, was elected from Baharampur. Mahua Moitra returned to the Lok Sabha from Krishnanagar, making her re-election particularly notable in the chronology of the 17th and 18th Lok Sabhas. In the industrial and western districts, Arup Chakraborty won Bankura, Asit Kumar Mal Bolpur, Kirti Azad Bardhaman-Durgapur, Sharmila Sarkar Bardhaman Purba, Adhikari Deepak Dev Ghatal, June Maliah Medinipur and Kalipada Saren Kherwal Jhargram. Satabdi Roy retained Birbhum, while Mitali Bag won Arambagh.

The AITC’s strength was particularly pronounced in the southern and metropolitan parliamentary system. Abhishek Banerjee was re-elected from Diamond Harbour, consolidating one of the party’s most closely watched constituencies. Sayani Ghosh won Jadavpur, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar Barasat, Sk Nurul Islam Basirhat, Pratima Mondal Joynagar and Bapi Haldar Mathurapur. In Kolkata, Mala Roy represented Kolkata Dakshin and Sudip Bandyopadhyay Kolkata Uttar. Around the metropolitan core, Partha Bhowmick won Barrackpore, Sougata Ray Dum Dum, Prasun Banerjee Howrah and Sajda Ahmed Uluberia. Kalyan Banerjee retained Srerampur, while Rachna Banerjee was elected from Hooghly. Shatrughan Prasad Sinha retained Asansol. These constituencies together illustrate the depth of AITC’s parliamentary presence across the Kolkata Metropolitan Region and the adjoining industrial-urban corridor.

The BJP’s twelve elected members reveal a markedly different territorial pattern. The party retained or captured a series of constituencies stretching from Darjeeling and the Himalayan foothills through North Bengal to the western districts and East Midnapore. Manoj Tigga was elected from Alipurduars, Jayanta Kumar Roy from Jalpaiguri, Raju Bista from Darjeeling and Kartick Chandra Paul from Raiganj. Sukanta Majumdar retained Balurghat, while Khagen Murmu represented Maldaha Uttar. In Nadia and the northern part of the metropolitan hinterland, Jagannath Sarkar retained Ranaghat and Shantanu Thakur retained Bangaon. In western Bengal, Jyotirmay Singh Mahato represented Purulia and Saumitra Khan Bishnupur. The party’s victories in Tamluk and Kanthi, represented respectively by Abhijit Gangopadhyay and Soumendu Adhikari, were particularly important because East Midnapore had become one of the central arenas of AITC-BJP competition.

The BJP’s twelve-seat position therefore cannot be interpreted simply as a collapse of its 2019 advance. Its 2019 total of eighteen seats had represented a historic breakthrough in a state where the party had previously possessed a relatively limited parliamentary base. In 2024, although it surrendered six constituencies, it retained a substantial territorial network. The election consequently established a distinction between electoral seat dominance and competitive vote strength: AITC secured the overwhelming majority of Bengal’s parliamentary seats, but BJP remained the principal statewide challenger rather than reverting to its pre-2019 marginal position. The constituency-level results also demonstrate that many contests were closely fought, including several constituencies where the margin between the leading parties was comparatively narrow.

The Indian National Congress was reduced to a single parliamentary seat, Maldaha Dakshin, where Isha Khan Choudhury was elected. This constituency retained an important place in the historical geography of Congress politics in Bengal. The result was also significant because the traditional Congress–Left electoral space, which had once constituted one of the principal foundations of Bengal’s parliamentary politics, failed to translate its aggregate presence into a substantial number of Lok Sabha victories. CPI(M) secured a considerable share of votes but won no constituency; similarly, the CPI, All India Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party failed to win parliamentary representation. The 2024 result thus marked another stage in the transformation of Bengal from a historically Congress–Left dominated party system into an AITC–BJP centred competitive system.

The forty-two elected members of the 18th Lok Sabha from West Bengal consequently constituted a politically diverse parliamentary delegation. The AITC members were Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, Abhishek Banerjee, Abu Taher Khan, Adhikari Deepak Dev, Arup Chakraborty, Asit Kumar Mal, Azad Kirti Jha, Bapi Haldar, June Maliah, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Kalipada Saren Kherwal, Kalyan Banerjee, Khalilur Rahaman, Mahua Moitra, Mala Roy, Mitali Bag, Partha Bhowmick, Pathan Yusuf, Prasun Banerjee, Pratima Mondal, Rachna Banerjee, Sajda Ahmed, Satabdi Roy, Sayani Ghosh, Sharmila Sarkar, Shatrughan Prasad Sinha, Sk Nurul Islam, Sougata Ray and Sudip Bandyopadhyay. The BJP delegation comprised Abhijit Gangopadhyay, Soumendu Adhikari, Jagannath Sarkar, Jayanta Kumar Roy, Jyotirmay Singh Mahato, Kartick Chandra Paul, Khagen Murmu, Manoj Tigga, Raju Bista, Saumitra Khan, Shantanu Thakur and Sukanta Majumdar. Isha Khan Choudhury was the sole Congress member.

Viewed historically, the 2024 West Bengal Lok Sabha election was therefore neither a simple continuation of the 2019 result nor a return to the pre-2019 political order. It represented the consolidation of AITC parliamentary predominance after the BJP’s dramatic expansion, while simultaneously confirming that the BJP had become an enduring component of Bengal’s electoral architecture. The disappearance of the Left from the list of elected Lok Sabha members was equally consequential: a political tradition that had governed the state continuously for thirty-four years remained electorally significant in votes but no longer possessed direct parliamentary representation from West Bengal. The 18th Lok Sabha thus recorded a particular historical moment in which AITC constituted the dominant parliamentary force, BJP constituted the principal counter-force, Congress survived in a single historical stronghold, and the Left’s electoral legacy ceased to produce a corresponding parliamentary presence. For the political history of West Bengal, the 2024 election is therefore best treated as a stage in the long transition from the Left-centred Bengal political order of 1977–2011 to the AITC–BJP competitive order that emerged during the 2010s and consolidated at the national parliamentary level in 2024

Core Concept: West Bengal and the 18th Lok Sabha

West Bengal Lok Sabha Election 2024
→ 18th Lok Sabha
→ 42 Parliamentary Constituencies
→ General Election of India 2024
→ Parliamentary Representation of West Bengal
→ Party System Transformation
→ Electoral Geography of Bengal

The central conceptual position of the 2024 West Bengal Lok Sabha election is its location within the longer transformation of the state’s parliamentary party system. The election should therefore be connected not merely to individual constituencies and elected members, but to the historical sequence Congress dominance → Left Front dominance → Trinamool Congress ascendancy → BJP expansion → AITC–BJP competition.

Cluster: Constitutional and Parliamentary Framework

18th Lok Sabha
→ Lok Sabha of India
→ Parliament of India
→ House of the People
→ General Election
→ Electoral Constituency
→ Member of Parliament
→ Parliamentary Representation

Cross-reference:

18th Lok Sabha
↔ 2024 Indian General Election
↔ Election Commission of India
↔ West Bengal Parliamentary Constituencies
↔ 42 Members from West Bengal

The parliamentary framework provides the institutional layer through which the West Bengal election becomes part of the constitutional history of the Republic of India.

Cluster: Electoral Chronology

2024 General Election
→ 19 April 2024: First Phase
→ Seven-Phase Polling in West Bengal
→ 1 June 2024: Final Phase
→ 4 June 2024: Counting of Votes
→ Constitution of the 18th Lok Sabha

Cross-reference:

2024 Election
↔ 2019 Lok Sabha Election
↔ 2014 Lok Sabha Election
↔ 2021 West Bengal Assembly Election
↔ 2026 West Bengal Assembly Election

This chronological cluster allows Sarvarthapedia to examine the 2024 election as a historical sequence rather than an isolated electoral event.

Cluster: Party-System Transformation

West Bengal Party System
→ Indian National Congress
→ Left Front
→ Communist Party of India (Marxist)
→ All India Trinamool Congress
→ Bharatiya Janata Party

Historical sequence:

Congress Era
→ Left Front Era, 1977–2011
→ AITC Government from 2011
→ BJP Expansion after 2014
→ AITC–BJP Competition after 2019
→ AITC Parliamentary Dominance in 2024

Cross-reference:

Party-System Transformation
↔ Electoral Realignment
↔ Political Competition
↔ Vote Transfer
↔ Constituency-Level Polarisation
↔ Decline of the Left
↔ Congress Electoral Contraction

Cluster: AITC Parliamentary Position

All India Trinamool Congress
→ 29 Lok Sabha Seats
→ Largest Parliamentary Bloc from West Bengal
→ Abhishek Banerjee
→ Mahua Moitra
→ Kalyan Banerjee
→ Sudip Bandyopadhyay
→ Sougata Ray
→ Yusuf Pathan
→ Shatrughan Prasad Sinha

The AITC cluster should be connected to:

AITC
↔ Mamata Banerjee
↔ West Bengal Government
↔ 2011 Political Transition
↔ 2016 Assembly Election
↔ 2021 Assembly Election
↔ 2024 Lok Sabha Election

The 2024 result connects AITC’s state-level governmental dominance with its parliamentary representation at the Union level.

Cluster: BJP Parliamentary Position

Bharatiya Janata Party
→ 12 Lok Sabha Seats
→ Principal Opposition Force in West Bengal
→ Sukanta Majumdar
→ Abhijit Gangopadhyay
→ Raju Bista
→ Shantanu Thakur
→ Soumendu Adhikari
→ Jyotirmay Singh Mahato
→ Khagen Murmu

Cross-reference:

BJP in West Bengal
↔ 2014 Lok Sabha Election
↔ 2016 Assembly Election
↔ 2019 Lok Sabha Election
↔ 2021 Assembly Election
↔ 2024 Lok Sabha Election
↔ North Bengal
↔ Jungle Mahals
↔ East Midnapore

This cluster represents the rise of BJP from a relatively marginal parliamentary force to the principal challenger to AITC.

Cluster: Congress and the Residual Opposition Space

Indian National Congress
→ Maldaha Dakshin
→ Isha Khan Choudhury
→ Single Lok Sabha Seat

Cross-reference:

Congress
↔ Maldaha
↔ Murshidabad
↔ Historic Congress Base
↔ Congress–Left Electoral Relationship
↔ Decline of Congress in Bengal

The Congress cluster should connect historically to the earlier Congress–Left bipolar structure, demonstrating the contraction of the party’s parliamentary geography.

Cluster: Decline of the Left

Left Front
→ CPI(M)
→ CPI
→ Forward Bloc
→ RSP
→ 34 Years of Left Front Government, 1977–2011
→ 2011 Electoral Defeat
→ Post-2011 Decline
→ 2024: No Lok Sabha Seat from West Bengal

Cross-reference:

Decline of the Left
↔ Left Front Government
↔ Operation Barga
↔ Panchayati Raj
↔ Rural Electoral Organisation
↔ Industrial Decline
↔ Urbanisation
↔ AITC Rise
↔ BJP Expansion

The important conceptual distinction is:

Electoral Vote Presence
≠
Parliamentary Seat Representation

This distinction is essential for understanding why the Left could remain electorally relevant without returning a Member of Parliament from West Bengal in 2024.

Cluster: Electoral Geography of North Bengal

North Bengal
→ Cooch Behar
→ Alipurduars
→ Jalpaiguri
→ Darjeeling
→ Raiganj
→ Balurghat
→ Maldaha Uttar
→ Maldaha Dakshin

Cross-reference:

North Bengal
↔ Tea Economy
↔ Darjeeling Hills
↔ Rajbanshi Politics
↔ Scheduled Tribes
↔ Border Geography
↔ Migration
↔ BJP Electoral Expansion
↔ AITC Counter-Mobilisation

The North Bengal cluster should remain connected to the wider concept of strategic geography, because parliamentary constituencies in this region are influenced by international borders, hill politics, tea plantations, ethnic mobilisation and distinctive economic structures.

Cluster: Central Bengal

Central Bengal
→ Maldaha
→ Murshidabad
→ Jangipur
→ Baharampur
→ Krishnanagar
→ Nadia

Cross-reference:

Central Bengal
↔ Ganga River System
↔ Agrarian Economy
↔ Borderland Politics
↔ Congress Tradition
↔ AITC Expansion
↔ Minority-Concentrated Constituencies

This cluster creates a bridge between the historical political geography of Bengal and contemporary parliamentary competition.

Cluster: Western Bengal and Jungle Mahals

Western Bengal
→ Bankura
→ Bishnupur
→ Purulia
→ Jhargram
→ Medinipur
→ Ghatal
→ Arambagh

Cross-reference:

Jungle Mahals
↔ Adivasi Political Geography
↔ Scheduled Tribe Constituencies
↔ Forest Economy
↔ Industrialisation
↔ Land and Agrarian Politics
↔ Naxalite Movement
↔ BJP Expansion
↔ AITC Consolidation

The western Bengal cluster is particularly useful for studying the relationship between social geography, economic transformation and electoral realignment.

Cluster: Industrial Bengal

Industrial Belt
→ Asansol
→ Durgapur
→ Bardhaman-Durgapur
→ Howrah
→ Srerampur
→ Barrackpur
→ Hooghly

Cross-reference:

Industrial Bengal
↔ Coalfields
↔ Steel Industry
↔ Railways
↔ Labour Movement
↔ Trade Unions
↔ Urbanisation
↔ Left Politics
↔ AITC Politics
↔ BJP Politics

This cluster connects the 2024 election to the much longer history of industrial labour, Communist mobilisation and post-industrial electoral restructuring.

Cluster: Kolkata Metropolitan Political Geography

Kolkata Metropolitan Region
→ Kolkata Uttar
→ Kolkata Dakshin
→ Dum Dum
→ Jadavpur
→ Barasat
→ Barrackpur
→ Howrah

Cross-reference:

Kolkata
↔ Urban Electoral Politics
↔ Middle-Class Politics
↔ Working-Class Politics
↔ Migration
↔ Municipal Governance
↔ Industrial Suburbs
↔ AITC Urban Organisation
↔ BJP Urban Expansion

The metropolitan cluster provides a bridge between urbanisation and electoral behaviour.

Cluster: Southern Deltaic Bengal

Southern Bengal
→ Basirhat
→ Joynagar
→ Mathurapur
→ Uluberia
→ Diamond Harbour

Cross-reference:

Deltaic Bengal
↔ Sundarbans
↔ Riverine Geography
↔ Cyclones
↔ Agriculture
↔ Fisheries
↔ Migration
↔ Rural Development
↔ AITC Electoral Organisation

The southern cluster demonstrates how physical geography and electoral geography overlap.

Cluster: Parliamentary Personalities

18th Lok Sabha Members from West Bengal
→ Political Leaders
→ Former Legislators
→ Judicial Background
→ Sporting Background
→ Film and Television Personalities
→ Organisational Leaders

Cross-reference:

Abhijit Gangopadhyay
↔ Judiciary
↔ Calcutta High Court
↔ Electoral Politics

Yusuf Pathan
↔ Cricket
↔ Baharampur
↔ Celebrity Politics

Rachna Banerjee
↔ Cinema and Television
↔ Hooghly
↔ Celebrity Politics

Shatrughan Prasad Sinha
↔ Cinema
↔ Asansol
↔ National Politics

Abhishek Banerjee
↔ AITC Organisation
↔ Diamond Harbour
↔ Generational Political Leadership

Mahua Moitra
↔ Krishnanagar
↔ Parliamentary Politics
↔ Political Controversy
↔ Electoral Return

This cluster enables Sarvarthapedia to treat individual MPs as nodes within larger institutional and social networks, rather than merely as names in a list.

Cluster: Constituency as a Political Unit

Parliamentary Constituency
→ Electorate
→ Candidate
→ Political Party
→ Campaign
→ Voting Behaviour
→ Result
→ Member of Parliament

Cross-reference:

Constituency
↔ District
↔ Assembly Segments
↔ Demography
↔ Economic Structure
↔ Political Organisation
↔ Candidate Profile
↔ Voting Pattern

The constituency should be treated as the basic analytical unit of electoral history, while the state-wide result represents the aggregation of these individual political territories.

2019–2024 Electoral Transition

2019 Lok Sabha Election
→ AITC: 22
→ BJP: 18
→ Congress: 2

2024 Lok Sabha Election
→ AITC: 29
→ BJP: 12
→ Congress: 1

The central transition is:

AITC +7 seats
↔
BJP −6 seats
↔
Congress −1 seat

Cross-reference:

2019 Result
↔ 2024 Result
↔ Electoral Swing
↔ Seat Conversion
↔ Vote Share
↔ Candidate-Level Contest
↔ Regional Political Realignment

Cluster: Electoral Realignment

Electoral Realignment
→ Change in Party Support
→ Change in Constituency Ownership
→ Social Coalition
→ Regional Concentration
→ Candidate Selection
→ Campaign Organisation
→ National Political Narrative

Cross-reference:

AITC Expansion in 2024
↔ BJP Seat Contraction
↔ Congress Contraction
↔ Left Absence from Parliament

This creates the principal analytical chain:

Social Structure
→ Political Mobilisation
→ Voting Behaviour
→ Constituency Result
→ Seat Distribution
→ Parliamentary Power

Cluster: State Politics and National Politics

West Bengal Election
↔ Union Government Formation
↔ National Opposition
↔ Federalism
↔ Centre–State Relations
↔ Parliamentary Representation

The 42 MPs from West Bengal constitute an important component of the national parliamentary arithmetic. Consequently:

West Bengal Electoral Result
→ Lok Sabha Numbers
→ Party Strength in Parliament
→ Opposition Configuration
→ Federal Political Bargaining

Cluster: Historical Political Transition

Congress Political Order
→ Left Front Political Order
→ AITC Political Order
→ BJP Emergence
→ AITC–BJP Contest

The long-term historical network can therefore be represented as:

1947 Partition of Bengal
→ Refugee Politics
→ Congress Dominance
→ 1967 Political Fragmentation
→ Naxalite Movement
→ 1977 Left Front Government
→ 34 Years of Left Rule
→ 2011 AITC Government
→ 2014 BJP Parliamentary Expansion
→ 2019 BJP Breakthrough
→ 2021 AITC Assembly Victory
→ 2024 AITC Parliamentary Recovery

Historical Significance of the 2024 Result

18th Lok Sabha Election in West Bengal
→ AITC Parliamentary Dominance
→ BJP as Principal Challenger
→ Congress Reduced to One Seat
→ Left Without a Lok Sabha Seat
→ Transformation of Bengal’s Party System

This produces the principal Sarvarthapedia interpretation:

2024 West Bengal Election
↔ Post-2011 Political Order
↔ Post-2014 BJP Expansion
↔ Post-2019 Bipolar Competition
↔ Parliamentary Reassertion of AITC
↔ Continued BJP Electoral Presence
↔ Collapse of Left Parliamentary Representation

Sarvarthapedia Master Knowledge Graph

West Bengal
→ Political History
→ Electoral History
→ General Election 2024
→ 18th Lok Sabha
→ 42 Parliamentary Constituencies
→ 42 Elected Members

From this central node:

42 Elected Members
→ AITC 29
→ BJP 12
→ INC 1

And:

AITC 29
↔ Mamata Banerjee
↔ 2011 Political Transition
↔ State Government
↔ Southern Bengal
↔ Kolkata
↔ Rural Bengal

BJP 12
↔ 2014 Expansion
↔ 2019 Breakthrough
↔ North Bengal
↔ Jungle Mahals
↔ East Midnapore
↔ Opposition Politics

INC 1
↔ Maldaha Dakshin
↔ Congress Historical Base
↔ Congress–Left Political Space

Left 0
↔ 1977–2011 Government
↔ CPI(M)
↔ Left Front
↔ Electoral Decline
↔ Absence from 18th Lok Sabha