Bolpur-Santiniketan (Bengali: বোলপুর) is a municipality in Birbhum District in the state of West Bengal, India. It is 145 km north of Kolkata and is best known for the proximity to Visva Bharati, the university set up by Rabindranath Tagore the Nobel laureate poet. Given its proximity to Santiniketan and Sriniketan it is one of the seats of Culture and education in West Bengal.

Bolpur becomes very hot in the summer months (above 40 degrees Celsius in April to July).

One of the three sub-divisions of Birbhum district is also named after the town of Bolpur. The Bolpur sub-division consists of Bolpur- Sriniketan, Nanoor, Labpur and Ilambazar blocks.

The name "bolpur" comes form the word "boli-pur". In bengali "boli" means "slaughter" and "pur means "city".

As of 2001^[update] India census, Bolpur had a population of 65,659. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Bolpur has an average literacy rate of 73%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with male literacy of 79% and female literacy of 66%. 10% of the population is under 6 years of age. Bolpur is 2 km away from Shantiniketan.

Mamata Banerjee (Bengali: মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়, pronounced [mɔːmoːt̪ʰaː bɛːnaːrjiː]; born 5 January 1955) is the 11th and current Chief Minister of West Bengal. She is the first woman to hold the office. Banerjee founded All India Trinamool Congress in 1997 and became chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress. She is usually called "Didi" (meaning elder sister). She is often cited by the media and critics to be as "megalomaniac, eccentric and populist politician".

Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the All India Trinamul Congress (AITMC ) or (TMC) in West Bengal by defeating the world's longest-serving democratically-elected communist government, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front government, bringing to an end 34 years of Left Front rule in the state. Banerjee previously served as a Minister of Railways twice, Minister of Coal, and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports and Women and Child Development in the cabinet of the Indian government. She opposed forceful land acquisition for industrialisation by the then communist government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers.