West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026 | Declining industrial growth shapes poll battle in 'Ruhr of Bengal'

Asansol: More than 200 km away from Kolkata, the politics of Bengali-identity is not at play in Bengal’s second largest city.

With 32% of Asansol’s population being Hindi-speaking – mostly migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh – the ruling Trinamool Congress does not have leverage on the Bohiragoto (outsider) plank.

Instead it relies on the success of direct benefit schemes like the flagship Lakshmir Bhandar, but low-level corruption has become a restraining factor.

“We are contesting on the strength of our development work after Asansol was made the district headquarters. We have delivered on 106 schemes announced by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. People have trust on Didi, but not on Modi,” Moloy Ghatak, a minister in the state cabinet and the veteran TMC candidate at Asansol Uttar told DH, sitting at Raha Lane party office.

Surrounded by major coal fields including the country’s oldest Raniganj coal mine, Asansol has evolved as a key industrial town and railway hub over the years.

But in the last two decades, the Asansol-Durgapur industrial belt— once dubbed the "Ruhr of Bengal"— witnessed closure of several big Public Sector Undertakings and iconic private factories such as Burn Standard, Hindustan Cables, Sen-Raleigh Bicycle factory, Hindustan Pikington Glass factory and MAMC.

In his Asansol rally earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced plans to develop Asansol and Durgapur as mega cities, while referring to the closure of Sen Raleigh Cycle Factory and Hindustan Pilkington Glass Factory, blaming both the Left Front and the TMC regime for the region’s decline.

These shutdowns, driven by liquidation orders and chronic losses, have fuelled significant local unemployment and migration and are major issues in the 2026 Assembly polls. It also led to a spurt in hazardous work like illegal coal pits.

The consequences are visible in Asansol Dakshin where land subsidence due to underground coal mining has left massive voids, making it a critical safety and electoral issue.

Tapas banerjee, the TMC candidate at Asansol Dakshin, blames Eastern Coalfields Limited - a central PSU — for the severe land subsidence affecting local residents. His rival, BJP's Agnimitra Paul attacks the TMC over the "coal mafia" nexus, arguing that unregulated, illegal pits operated by local "syndicates" are the primary reason for the unstable ground in villages.

In his speech, Modi alleged that the industrial belt was under the "stranglehold" of a syndicate raj that controls illegal extraction and black-marketing of coal and sand.

Asked about illegal coal mining, Ghatak said it was CISF’s responsibility to protect the underground resource and stop black marketing.

On industrial development, the minister said 193 acres of land parcel of the erstwhile Dhakeswari cotton mill has been taken over by the West Bengal government for setting up an industrial park. The project’s DPR, however, is yet to be made.

“Despite of not having a good organisation base, BJP is putting up a good fight to TMC because of the low level corruption. The saffron party will get the votes of Hindi-speaking population that views TMC as a party that favours the Muslims,” said a college teacher. Also the BJP promise of hiking the Lakshmir Bhandar to Rs 3,000 per month has struck a chord with the poor.