Parliamentary Constituencies

There are 42 parliamentary constituencies in the state of West Bengal. The members of the parliamentary constituencies of the state are elected to the Lok Sabha or the lower house of legislature of the country. The parliamentary constituencies are distributed all over the state.

The government ensures that there is adequate representation of the state in the Lok Sabha. The parliamentary constituencies in a state are divided according to the number of seats in the legislative assembly of the state. The state of West Bengal has reservations of 294 seats in the legislative assembly of the state. The representation of the state of West Bengal in the parliament accounts for a seat for every seventh member of the legislative assembly of the state.

Among the 42 parliamentary constituencies, provisions have been made for the representation of the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes of the state. 8 seats are reserved for the scheduled castes while there are provisions for 2 seats in the house for the scheduled tribes. The elected members of the Alipurduar and the Jhargram parliamentary constituencies represent the scheduled tribes of the state in the parliament constituted after the elections in 2004. The members of the scheduled caste were elected from Cooch Behar, Balurghat, Nabadwip, Joynagar, Mathurapur, Vishnupur, Durgapur and Birbhum for the 2004 election to the Lok Sabha.

The parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal state ensures that there is adequate representation of the state in the legislature of the central government and the interests of the people of the state are protected.