Barkhola Constituency - Population, Polling Percentage, Facilities, Parties Vote Share, Last Election Results

Barkhola is a town located in the Cachar district in the Indian state of Assam, which is also the name of the municipal board in the town. Lakhipur town committee was formed in 1960 with four wards, to begin with. After continuous up-gradation and revision, there are currently twelve wards under the Lakhipur municipal board.

ASSEMBLY CONSTITUENCY NAME & NO

Barkhola Vidhan Sabha Constituency is one among the 126 assembly constituencies of Assam, which is a northeast state of India. It is serialised as the 14th constituency of the Assam assembly constituency. Barkhola is a part of the Silchar Lok Sabha constituency. The elected MLA of the 2016 election is Kishore Nath of the Bharatiya Janata party, who won the election with 36482 with a percentage of 34.9%.

PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCY

Barkhola Assembly constituency is a part of the Silchar parliamentary constituency, which comes under the Silchar district of Assam.

DISTRICT

Barkhola comes under the Cachar District, which is an administrative district of Assam. It is in the Barak Valley alongside Hailakandi and Karimganj. The name Cachar has its origin in the Kachari Kingdom, and Kachar was originally an area under the Tripura Kingdom.

Geographically Cachar is spread across 3786 square kilometres. Barak is the primary river in the district, along with other small and big tributaries that run through the Cachar district. Cachar consists of plains, however, there are small little hills surrounding the place from multiple corners.

Although Cachar is recognised as one of the crucial business hubs of Assam yet economically it is not as advanced as it was supposed to be. In 2016, Cachar was among the country's 250 most backward districts of India out of the total number of 640 districts. It also falls under one of the eleven districts of Assam, which is currently receiving funds under the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme.

There are three sub-divisions in Cachar districts which are- Lakhipur, Katigorah and Silchar. Additionally, it has seven assembly constituencies such as as- Sonai, Dholai, Lakhipur, Udharbond, Barkhola and Katigorah. Out of these seven assembly constituencies, Dholai is designated as an SC constituency.

Based on the 2011 population census of India, Cachar has a population of 1736617 people with a 459 population density per square kilometre. Over the decade from 2001 to 2011, Cachar has seen 20.17% of population growth. It has a literacy rate of around 80.36%, and the sex ratio is 958 women per 1000 male.

Bengali is the official language of the Cachar district which is spoken by almost 75% of people, and English is recognised as the second official language of the district. Moreover, Bengali Muslims are the dominant people in the said place and occupy most of the population ratio; apart from that, there are other minority groups as well.

In terms of education, Cachar is no longer lagging behind as it houses some prestigious educational institutions in the state. The district has a central university know as Assam University, to which students from all over the country and the state come for admission. It also has a medical college and NIT, which is one of the thirty NITs of India. Apart from these, there're so many other colleges and schools in the districts.

ASSEMBLY STATUS

In the Assembly election of 2016, the BJP's Kishore Nath won the challenge from the IND leader Misabul Islam Lashkar. Kishore Nath got 36482 votes compared to IND contestant Misabul Islam Lashkar who got 36440 votes.

In the 2011 Assembly election, Indian National Congress' Rumi Nath had routed the IND1's, Misabul Islam Laskar. INC's Rumi nath got a considerable number of 44828 votes compared to Misabul Islam Laskar, who netted just 34189 votes.

The Barkhola constituency is believed to go to the polls in March as part of the 2021 Assam Vidhansabha elections.

The Assam Assembly polls will be organised to elect a total of 126 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). The voter turnout in Barkhola in the previous Assembly election was 80.83% per cent.

TOTAL POPULATION

As per the 2011 census of India, Barkhola had a total population of 201135. Out of these, 95.42% of people live in rural areas, and 4.58% live in urban areas.

NO OF HOUSEHOLDS

There are almost 553 households in Barkhola Tehsil.

MUNICIPALITY REACH IN THE AREA

Barkhola block falls under the village panchayat. There are quite a many villages that fall under the Barkhola block. Some of them are- Rampur, Chesri, Raninagar, Chutra Sangan, Ujan Gram, Boro Rampur, Dalu Gram, Dalu Grant, Kalinagar etc.

CAST AND TRIBES IN THE CONSTITUENCY

Schedule Caste (SC) constitutes 14.73%, while Schedule Tribe (ST) were 0.59% of the total population in Barkhola Constituency.

TOP 3 CITIES IN THE CONSTITUENCY

Barkhola is a tehsil in the Cachar district of Assam. It does not have any major cities in its own periphery; however, Silchar, Haflong, Hailakandi, and Karimganj are some of the nearby cities of Barkhola.

MALE/FEMALE ELECTORAL DISTRIBUTION

The Barkhola constituency is located in Assam's Cachar district. It falls under the Silchar Lok Sabha constituency. In the Assembly election of 2016, the constituency had a total of 129524 registered voters. Out of which male voters are 68082, and female voters are 61442.

POLLING PERCENTAGE IN THE 2016 ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS (WHICH CONSTITUENCY HAS BEEN THE STRONGHOLD FOR WHICH PARTY AND FOR HOW LONG? WHAT HAS BEEN THE VOTING PATTERN)?

The polling percentage in the Assembly election of 2016 was 80.38% in Barkhola constituency. This constituency has proved to be a stronghold for the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party for the last ten years with the victory of Kishore Nath of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2016 and Rumi Nath of INC in 2011. Before that, there was an alternate shift of power between the Asom Gana Parishad and the Indian National Congress.  

PERCENTAGE VOTE SHARE OF POLITICAL PARTY IN THE LAST FIVE ELECTION

1. In the 1996 Assam Assembly Elections, Misbahul Islam Laskar from Indian National Congress party won the Barkhola seat with 32934 number of votes. He defeated Nipendra Kr. Deb of BJP party.
2. In the 2001 Assam Assembly Elections, Misbahul Islam Laskar from INC party won the Barkhola seat with 34530 number of votes. He defeated Trailakshya Bhusan Nath of BJP party.
3. In the 2006 Assam Assembly Elections, Rumi Nath from BJP party won the Barkhola seat with 28414 votes. She defeated Misbahul Islam Laskar of INC party.
4. In the 2011 Assam Assembly Elections, Rumi Nath from INC party won the Barkhola seat with 44824 votes. She defeated Misbahul Islam Laskar of IND party.
5. In the 2016 Assam Assembly Elections, Kishore Nath from BJP party won the Barkhola seat with 36482 votes. He defeated Misbahul Islam Laskar of IND party.

CANDIDATES IN LAST ELECTION & RESULT (WINNER AND LOOSER)

In the last assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Kishore won with a total vote of 36482 with a 34.9% share. Misbahul Islam Laskar from the IND1 Party lost the battle with a margin of 42 votes. Dr Rumi Nath from the Indian National Congress came in the third position by securing 21946 votes. The least of them all is Jahurul Islam Barbhuya and Chunilal Bhattacharjee, both of them got 4051 and 2438 votes, respectively.

As observed through both the parliamentary and assembly election graph, BJP is one of the prime dominating parties in the said constituency. Therefore, in the coming elections, too, it can be predicted that BJP seems to be in a favourable position and might win the 2021 assembly elections as well.