2026 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election (Wikipedia Lab Guide)

2026 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election

Legislative Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in West Bengal from 23 and 29 April 2026 to elect all 294 members of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on 4 May 2026.

Background

The tenure of West Bengal Legislative Assembly is scheduled to end on 7 May 2026. The previous assembly elections were held in March–April 2021. After the election, the incumbent Trinamool Congress formed the state government again after winning 215 out of 294 seats in the assembly, with Mamata Banerjee sworn in as the Chief Minister.

Schedule

The Election Commission of India announced the schedule for the West Bengal Legislative Assembly election on 15 March 2026.

Voter statistics

According to the Election Commission of India, 70,459,284 voters were eligible to vote in the assembly elections in West Bengal. This includes 36,022,642 male, 34,435,260 female, and 1,382 third gender.

Parties and alliances

All India Trinamool Congress+

Bharatiya Janata Party

Left Front+

CPI(ML)L announced they would contest the election in alliance with Left Front on 16 March 2026. Seat sharing with ISF are yet to be finalized.

Others

Candidates

BGPM released their list of 3 candidates on 15 March 2026. AITC released their list of 291 candidates on 17 March 2026.

BJP released the first list of 144 candidates on 16 March 2026; the second list of 111 candidates (also included replacement of a candidate and support to an independent candidate) on 19 March 2026.

Left Front announced the first list of 192 candidates on 16 March 2026, including 142 seats for CPI(M), 21 seats for AIFB, 14 seats for CPI, 13 seats for RSP, and 1 seat each for RCPI and MFB; the second list of 32 candidates on 19 March 2026, including 28 seats for CPI(M), 3 seats for CPI and 1 seat for RSP. CPI(ML)L announced the names of their candidates on 10 seats on 17 March 2026.

Issues

Similar to the previous election, the polls in this time is set to be dominated by issues like:

Citizenship anxiety centering around the CAA and SIR.

Religious polarisation fueled by the decline of Communism and ascendancy of Hindutva, concerns over demographic change caused by illegal immigration of Bangladeshi Muslims and ascendancy of Islamism in that country following the July Revolution, widespread anti-Hindu violence and consolidation of the Jamaat-e-Islami along the India-Bangladesh border.

Bengali identity and Anti-Bengali sentiment

Endemic corruption

Women's safety

Demographic displacement and migration from BIMARU states — Concerns among Bengali voters over large-scale in-migration from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, perceived as straining local resources, displacing Bengali workers in the labour market, and being used as vote banks at the expense of native Bengali interests.

Lack of Economic Opportunities

Anti-Incumbency

Surveys and polls

Opinion polls

Exit polls

Results

Results by alliance or party

Results by district

Results by constituency

Notes

References

Source

Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_West_Bengal_Legislative_Assembly_election
Wikipedia API endpoint: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php