in the 2009 by-election, firhad hakim (bobby) of trinamool congress won the 148 alipore assembly seat. the by-election was necessitated by the election of sitting mla, tapas paul, to the lok sabha from the krishnanagar (lok sabha constituency). in 2006 and 2001 elections to the state assembly, tapas paul of trinamool congress won the seat defeating his nearest rivals biplab chatterjee and mira bhowmick respectively, both of cpi(m). saugata roy of congress defeated rathindranath roy choudhury of cpi(m) in 1996, tarhin roy choudhury of cpi(m) in 1991, and ashoke bose of cpi(m) in 1987. anup kumar chandra of congress defeated ashok kumar bose of cpi(m) in 1982. ashoke kumar bose of cpi(m) defeated salai baran chatterjee of janata party in 1977.