West Bengal polls: TMC releases list of 291 candidates; stage set for Suvendu vs Mamata in Bhabanipur | India News
New Delhi: The All India Trinamool Congress on Tuesday announced its list of candidates for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections. Party supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that the party will contest 291 out of 294 seats in the state. The remaining three seats in the Darjeeling Hills will be contested by the Anit Thapa-led Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantric Morcha (BGPM).Mamata has decided to contest the election from Bhavanipur against BJP’s Shuvendu Adhikari. Meanwhile, the TMC has fielded Adhikari’s former loyalist Holy Kar against him in Nandigram.Besides, Chandrima Bhattacharya from Dumdum North seat, Madan Mitra from Kamarhati seat, Firhad Hakim from Kolkata Port seat, Kunal Ghosh from Beleghata seat and Dr Shashi Panja from Shyampukur seat have been nominated.“We will contest 291 out of 294 seats. The remaining three seats will be contested by our ally, the Anit Thapa-led BGPM, in the Darjeeling Hills,” Banerjee said while announcing the names of candidates along with party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and state president Bakshi Subrata.Of the 291 TMC candidates for the West Bengal elections, 52 are women, 95 are from SC/ST communities and 47 are from minorities.See full listMamata expressed confidence that the TMC will retain power with a comfortable majority in the 2026 assembly elections.“We will win more than 226 seats in the 2026 assembly elections,” he asserted.The chief minister wanted to reassure party leaders and workers who did not get a place in the candidate list, saying that they would be accommodated in the organisation.Earlier on Sunday, the Election Commission had announced that the assembly elections in West Bengal would be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29.Announcing the election schedule for four states and one union territory, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said that it was necessary to reduce the number of phases to make elections convenient for all.The counting of votes for the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections along with Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu will take place on May 4. In the 2021 Bengal elections, the Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee won 215 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party became the official opposition with 77 seats.
