TMC picks farmer-organiser Barnali Dhara for Kulpi seat

Kolkata: In a candidate list often dominated by seasoned faces and political regulars, the Trinamool Congress has slipped in a quieter, more grounded choice for Kulpi Assembly constituency — Barnali Dhara, a farmer who built her reputation far from party offices, in the fields and among rural women.

Dhara, 51, is not a conventional political pick. A resident of Uttar Chandranagar in Kakdwip block of South 24-Parganas, she first drew wider attention for her work in agriculture and women’s self-help initiatives in the Sundarbans belt. In 2025, she was honoured with the President’s Award as a “distinguished farmer”, recognition that brought her work into sharper public focus.

Her journey has been gradual and rooted in lived experience. Married soon after completing her higher secondary education, Dhara’s early years were centred around home. Her entry into agriculture came through training programmes on fertilisers and crop practices — exposure that eventually shaped her into a hands-on cultivator and organiser.

In 2008, she founded the Ashwathtala Mahila Janakalyan self-help group, which she now serves as secretary. Through it, she has worked to make rural women financially independent, offering training in farming and handicrafts. Her initiatives in sunflower seed production, along with multi-crop cultivation, earned her the Mahila Kisan Puraskar in 2018.

Though she has not held any formal political position, Dhara has remained engaged with her community, participating in local meetings and mobilising women around livelihood issues. Her extended family, however, has had links with Congress-era politics in the region.

For the ruling party, her candidature signals a push to foreground grassroots credibility over political pedigree. For Dhara, stepping into electoral politics may be new — but working closely with people has long been her strength.