NEW DELHI ,28 Feb 2026 : The Congress party is preparing to regain some lost ground in West Bengal in the upcoming 2026 assembly elections. It is not an easy task given that the party was reduced to “zero” in the 2021 polls with its ally CPI(M) also not getting any seats, for the first time since India’s electoral debut in 1951-52.
With that as the starting point, the party is hoping to resurface in Bengal, first by going it solo after 20 years. The campaign strategy is to work at two levels — one part is about getting back some seats while the other part is to rebuild the image of the Congress as a viable alternative in the long run, according to the state’s only Lok Sabha member Isha Khan Chowdhury from Maldah Dakshin.
“We are looking at seats for recovery and to re-establish the identity of Congress,” which seems to have gotten diluted over years for the party having been in alliance with Left, Trinamool, etc in the state for some years,” he explained.
In 2021, Congress tied up with the CPM-led Left Front, and both parties failed to win a single seat. In 2006, the party won 21 seats on its own, while the rest of the anti-incumbency votes against the ruling Left Front went to Trinamool Congress, formed in 1998 by Mamata Banerjee, after she split with Congress. In 2011, Congress allied with Trinamool and the duo ousted a 34-year-old Left Front regime, led by Mamata Banerjee.
Picture credit social media
