Elections 98

State:	West Bengal
Constituency:	Hooghly
Total Votes Polled:	943670
Winner: CPM	Rupchand Pal	431229
Runner Up: WBTC	Tapan Dasgupta	425113
Margin: 6116 (1%)

Elections 96

State:	West Bengal
Constituency:	Hooghly
Total Votes Polled:	934941
Winner: CPM	Rupchand Pal	452353
Runner Up: INC	Gouri Sankar Banerjee	413856
Margin: 38497 (4.20%)

The Congress has won this seat only once, in 1984, when I Bhattacharya defeated sitting CPI-M MP Rup Chand Pal. Pal came back in 1989, and has won this seat three times in a row after that. In 1996 Pal defeated the Congress's Gauri Sankar Banerjee by 39,000 votes.