NEW DELHI ,22 April 2026: West Bengal is set to vote in the first phase of the assembly elections on Thursday, with polling scheduled in 152 constituencies across north Bengal and several districts in the southern part of the state.
Here’s a look at the main political parties contesting this time:
TRINAMOOL CONGRESS (TMC)
The Trinamool Congress, officially known as the All India Trinamool Congress, has been in power in West Bengal for the past 15 years.
It was founded by Mamata Banerjee in 1998 as a breakaway faction of the Indian National Congress and rapidly rose to prominence in the politics of West Bengal under her leadership.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led TMC claims they are pro-Bengali sentiment, pro-development, and working tirelessly for the benefits of people of Bengal with the maximum strength in the state assembly. Apart from the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool has its organisational strength in the grassroots, which they consider one of their main pillars.
In 2021, the Trinamool Congress won 213 of the state’s 294 seats in a landslide victory, its highest tally in the House. In terms of vote share, it registered an all-time high of 47.9% of votes.
During the 2021 election, the party rebuilt its connections to the masses with projects like ‘Didi ke Bolo’ and slogans like ‘Khela Hobe’. Poll pandits believe Trinamool’s masterstroke was the monthly beneficiary ‘Lakhmi Bhandar’ scheme for women, which made her chief minister of Bengal for the third consecutive time.
Trinamool, with the firebrand leadership of Mamata Banerjee and her nephew and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, is again a key party in the 2026 election.
BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY (BJP)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was born in 1980 out of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh party, an offshoot of the far-right Hindu nationalist organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
After the 2016 Bengal assembly election, the party gradually emerged as the main opposition in the state, sidelining Bengal’s conventional Left-Congress duo against Mamata Banerjee.
During 2021, the BJP could only win 77 seats, with a large section of Muslims and progressive Hindus reportedly refusing to support the party’s hardline Hindu politics.
The party also failed to strengthen its grassroots and portray a convincing layout of its leadership against Mamata Banerjee. Some also blame the BJP’s fractional fights for its defeat in 2021.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP bettered its tally and won 12 seats in Bengal.
This time the BJP, under the state leadership of Samik Bhattacharya and senior leaders like Suvendu Adhikari and Sukanta Majumdar, hopes they will be able to form the government in Bengal, making history.
CONGRESS:
The Indian National Congress is facing a critical juncture in West Bengal as it grapples with deepening challenges related to a leadership vacuum, ideological disorientation, and an eroding grassroots base.
Once a formidable political force in the state, the party now struggles for relevance amid the ascent of regional giants and shifting electoral preferences.
In the 2021 assembly elections, Congress was in a state of leaderless political instability. In 1998, Mamata Banerjee broke Congress and established Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.
Despite being in alliance with the Left and ISF in the 2021 elections, the Congress was in dire straits due to a leadership deficit, financial constraints and lack of a correct political message.
But the 2024 Lok Sabha election tally shows Congress is in a better position assembly-wise. In 2024, Congress received about 28 lakh votes, marking 4.68 per cent of Bengal’s total voter share.
According to the 2024 result, Congress is leading in 11 assembly seats in Bengal.
CPI-M
The CPI-M, which failed to open its account in the 2021 Assembly polls despite an alliance with Congress and ISF and managed no seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, is now pinning its hopes on a ground-level revival strategy.
The party, which was in power in Bengal for 34 years, is carrying out its statewide “Bangla Bachao Yatra” (Save Bengal March) as part of its outreach campaign before assembly polls.
The march began in November last year in Cooch Behar and covered a larger part of North Bengal before coming to South Bengal, passing through Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, Purba Bardhaman and Hooghly, and concluding in North 24 Parganas in December.
During the 2021 elections, there was some leftist organisation presence on the ground. But beyond that there was no significant political equation. So even after CPI-M went for an alliance with Congress and ISF, CPI(M) could not make any major impact in the 2021 elections.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the CPI-M received only 0.38 per cent of the total voter share of Bengal.
ISF
The Indian Secular Front (ISF), the party which was born just ahead of the 2021 assembly election, marking its lone presence in the state assembly by Naushad Siddique, has now become popular among Muslim youths. It can be considered one of TMC’s challengers rising from within Bengal’s own soil.
Peerzada Abbas Siddiqui of Furfura Sharif, cleric and politician, built the ISF in 2021. He formed the party in order to bring Muslims, Dalits, and the poor who felt unseen by Kolkata’s corridors of power into the limelight of politics.
In 2021, his party’s modest debut was brushed aside by many, but one seat in Bhangar proved something bigger: he could mobilise, inspire, and plant roots where TMC thought the ground was firm.
AIMIM
Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) has decided to widen its footprint in West Bengal. The party made its Bengal debut in the 2021 assembly election but failed to create an impact.
It fielded seven candidates from Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur districts in minority dominated seats – a fraction of the state’s 294 assembly seats.
This time, the party is contesting 11 seats, nine of them in the first phase.
On April 10, the alliance between AIMIM and suspended TMC leader Humayun Kabir’s Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) collapsed after a purported video surfaced in which a person resembling Kabir was allegedly heard talking of a multi-crore deal with the BJP to dislodge the ruling party.
AJUP
Humayun Kabir, who was suspended by the TMC after repeated clashes with the party’s leadership, has floated his own political party — the AJUP.
The party is contesting more than 180 seats.
West Bengal will have a two-phase poll on April 23 and 29. Counting is scheduled for May 4.
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