West Bengal Elections 2026 — TMC List Out, Mamata from Bhabanipur, Full Schedule Explained
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Divya Sharma 2026-03-17 West Bengal Elections 2026, WB Polls 111
The battle for Bengal has officially begun.
On Tuesday, March 17, 2026 — the same day the Election Commission of India's poll schedule went into full effect — the Trinamool Congress released its complete list of candidates for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stood before the cameras in Kolkata, flanked by party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and state president Subrata Bakshi, and did what she does better than almost any politician in India: she made a fight personal.
"We will win more than 226 seats," Banerjee declared, naming a number just above the majority mark in the 294-seat assembly. "After these elections, this type of BJP will have no ground in West Bengal."
And then she confirmed what every political observer in the state had been waiting to hear: she will contest from Bhabanipur. Directly against Suvendu Adhikari.
The rematch is on.
The Full Election Schedule
The Election Commission of India announced the West Bengal Assembly election schedule on Sunday, March 15, and the state is heading to the polls in two phases:
- Phase 1: April 23, 2026
- Phase 2: April 29, 2026
- Counting of Votes: May 4, 2026
All 294 seats of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly will be contested across these two phases. The government in power — whichever party forms it — will take office in May 2026. With TMC holding a commanding majority in the current assembly and the BJP as the principal opposition, this is shaping up as a direct two-way contest, with the Left and Congress fighting to remain politically relevant.
The TMC List — 291 Seats, No Surprises at the Top
TMC announced nominees for 291 of the 294 seats. The three constituencies left out — Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Kurseong — are the hill constituencies in North Bengal, which have been allocated to TMC's ally, the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), led by Anit Thapa, who heads the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. This arrangement has been in place for several cycles and continues in 2026.
The list reflects a deliberate blend of continuity and change. Several sitting MLAs have been dropped — Kanai Mandal's exclusion, for instance, signals internal housekeeping within the party's organisational structure. Several fresh faces and a handful of former BJP leaders who crossed over to TMC in recent months have been accommodated.
The composition of the list as released: 52 women candidates, 95 SC and ST nominees, and 47 minority candidates — a deliberate attempt to project a coalition of caste and community representation across Bengal's complex social geography.
Notable candidates from the TMC list:
- Mamata Banerjee — Bhabanipur (South Kolkata)
- Chandrima Bhattacharya — Dum Dum Uttar
- Madan Mitra — Kamarhati
- Firhad Hakim — Kolkata Port
- Kunal Ghosh — Beleghata
- Shashi Panja — Shyampukur
- Jyotipriya Mallick — Habra
- Pabitra Kar — Nandigram (a close former aide of Suvendu Adhikari who switched to TMC just hours before the list was released)
- Humayun Kabir (former IPS officer) — fielded to counter BJP's law-and-order narrative
The Main Event — Mamata vs Adhikari in Bhabanipur
This is the contest that will define the 2026 election regardless of who wins how many seats overall.
In 2021, Mamata Banerjee contested from Nandigram — a seat she once held and which she chose deliberately as a symbol of confidence. Suvendu Adhikari, who had quit TMC and joined the BJP in late 2020, contested the same seat. Adhikari won by a margin of under 2,000 votes. Banerjee subsequently won the Bhabanipur by-election and retained her Chief Ministership.
This time, both candidates are going to Bhabanipur. Adhikari — who holds his Nandigram seat as well, contesting from two constituencies simultaneously — has been nominated by the BJP for Bhabanipur in what party leaders describe as the "most crucial contest" of the election.
Banerjee calls Bhabanipur her fortress. It is a south Kolkata constituency with a mixed electorate — Marwari and Gujarati business communities alongside Bengali-speaking residents — that has historically leaned toward Banerjee's brand of politics. The by-election win in 2021 was comfortable. But Adhikari at the peak of his political momentum, in a state-level election rather than a by-election, is a different proposition.
The Nandigram battle in 2021 was one of the most closely contested, bitterly fought, and nationally watched electoral battles in recent memory. Bhabanipur 2026 could eclipse even that.
The BJP's Position — 144 Names Out, More to Come
The BJP announced its first list of 144 candidates on Monday, March 16. The full list for all 294 seats is expected shortly. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari is the undisputed face of the BJP's campaign — appearing on both the Nandigram and Bhabanipur nomination papers, a tactic that signals both strength and the recognition that he needs at least one seat to survive if Bhabanipur does not go his way.
The BJP's strategy is clear: national narrative (security, governance, anti-incumbency), target Mamata's perceived weaknesses (women's safety record, the Sandeshkhali episode that shook the state in 2023-24, corruption allegations against TMC leaders), and rely on Adhikari's personal profile in south Bengal to consolidate the party's core vote.
The party will also count on Left and Congress voters in seats where the anti-TMC vote tends to split between multiple parties, hoping that a sharper BJP brand this cycle consolidates opposition votes in its favour.
CPM and Congress — The Third Force Question
The CPM released its first list of 192 candidates, fielding a range of young faces and established Left names. The party knows that Bengal is no longer its home territory — the Left has been decimated at the assembly level since 2011. But the CPM leadership believes it can be a meaningful third force, particularly in industrial belts and in districts where its ground organisation survives.
Congress, which largely contested independently from the Left in 2021 — a decision that arguably split the anti-TMC vote in several seats — is being watched to see whether it aligns with the CPM-led Left front this time or goes it alone again.
Mamata's Accusations Against the Election Commission
In a development that will add edge to the entire campaign, Mamata Banerjee publicly accused the Election Commission of bias in favour of the BJP. The immediate trigger was the EC's decision to transfer several senior police and administrative officials in West Bengal ahead of the elections — a routine step mandated by the Model Code of Conduct to ensure an independent administration during the polling period.
Banerjee called the EC a "BJP Commission" and alleged it was playing "brilliant games" by removing officials she had placed and replacing them with those sympathetic to the opposition. The EC transferred officials from multiple states, not just Bengal — but Banerjee's intervention signals that the party intends to keep the narrative of "centre versus state" alive throughout the campaign.
What the 2021 Results Tell Us
In 2021, TMC won 213 of 294 seats — a commanding majority. BJP won 77. The Left and Congress combined did not win a single seat in double digits. The turnout was over 82%, one of the highest in the country.
Since then, several TMC MLAs have been arrested or face CBI and ED investigations into post-poll violence and financial irregularities. The party's vote base has appeared solid in by-elections. But the Bihar political reshuffle and the changing dynamics in Hindi-belt states suggest that the BJP has not given up its ambitions in eastern India.
May 4 will be the verdict. Between now and then, Bengal is going to be the most intensely watched state in the country — not because the national government is at stake, but because this is a fight between two of the most personally competitive politicians in Indian public life, about to face each other directly, in a constituency that one of them calls home.
Hamza Ali or Mamata Didi — who do you think wins Bhabanipur? The bookmakers have their odds. The voters will have the last word.
West Bengal Election 2026 — Key Facts at a Glance
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Detail
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Info
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Total Seats
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294
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Phase 1 Voting
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April 23, 2026
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Phase 2 Voting
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April 29, 2026
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Results
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May 4, 2026
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TMC Candidates
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291 (3 seats to ally BGPM)
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BJP First List
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144 candidates
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CPM First List
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192 candidates
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Mamata's Seat
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Bhabanipur
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Adhikari's Seats
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Bhabanipur + Nandigram (BJP)
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TMC Women Candidates
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52
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TMC SC/ST Candidates
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95
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Mamata's Target
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226+ seats
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