Elections 98

State:	West Bengal
Constituency:	Howrah
Total Votes Polled:	1027782
Winner: WBTC	Dr Bikram Sarkar	437224
Runner Up: CPM	Swadesh Chakkraborty	430689
Margin: 6535 (1%)

Elections 96

State:	West Bengal
Constituency:	Howrah
Total Votes Polled:	985507
Winner: INC	Priya Ranjan Das Munsi	459059
Runner Up: CPM	Susanta Chakraborty	425128
Margin: 33931 (3.54%)

The Congress won the first election in 1952, after which the CPI-M took over. The Congress won next only in 1967, after which again the CPI-M took over. The third Congress victory in 1984 was courtesy Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, who lost the next two rounds to the CPI-M's Susanta Chakraborty. In 1996, however, Dasmunshi defeated Chakraborty by 34,000 votes.