Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Sunday announced the schedule for the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, with polling for the state’s 294 assembly constituencies to be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29.The announcement was made by the poll panel led by chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar during a press conference in New Delhi.
Voting in West Bengal will take place in two phases. The first phase, covering 152 assembly constituencies, will be held on April 23, while the second phase, covering the remaining 142 constituencies, will be conducted on April 29.The counting of votes for both phases will take place on May 4, while the election process is scheduled to be completed by May 6, the chief election commissioner said.
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With the announcement of the poll schedule, the Model Code of Conduct comes into immediate effect in the state.The West Bengal Legislative Assembly consists of 294 seats, with members elected from single-member constituencies for a five-year term. The last assembly election in the state was held in 2021, conducted in eight phases between March 27 and April 29, amid an intense contest between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) led by Mamata Banerjee and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, the TMC secured a decisive victory and returned to power for a third consecutive term. According to official election data, the party won 213 seats in the 294-member assembly, comfortably crossing the majority mark of 148 seats.The BJP emerged as the principal opposition party, winning 77 seats, a significant jump compared with its three seats in the 2016 assembly election. The results marked a major expansion of the BJP’s presence in the state legislature and cemented its position as the main challenger to the TMC.Despite the TMC’s overall victory, the party saw a major setback. One of the most closely watched battles was in Nandigram, where BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari defeated chief minister Mamata Banerjee, although she later returned to the assembly through a bypoll from Bhabanipur.In 2021, elections while the BJP made major gains, traditional parties such as the Congress and the Left Front failed to win a significant number of seats.In 2016, TMC won 211 seats in the state while Congress secured 44 seats, followed by CPI(M) gaining 26 seats. Mamata Banerjee has been leading the state since 2011. Before her, West Bengal was dominated by the Communist Party for over three decades.
