2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election

2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election
← 2016 27 March – 29 April 2021 (292 seats)
30 September 2021 (2 remaining seats)		 2026 →
294 seats in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly
148 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered72,924,106
Turnout82.30% (Decrease 0.72 pp)
  Majority party Minority party
 
Ms. Mamata Banerjee, in Kolkata on July 17, 2018 (cropped) (cropped).JPG
Dilip Ghosh.jpg
Leader Mamata Banerjee Dilip Ghosh
Party AITC BJP
Alliance AITC+ NDA
Leader since 1998 2015
Leader's seat Nandigram
(lost)[1]
Bhabanipur
(By-elected)[2] 		Did not contest[a]
Last election 44.91% votes
211 seats 		10.16% votes
3 seats
Seats won 215 77
Seat change Increase 4 Increase 74
Popular vote 28,968,281 22,905,474
Percentage 48.02% 38.15%
Swing Increase 3.11 pp Increase 27.99 pp
  Third party Fourth party
 
Dr. Surjya Kanta Mishra at a meeting to assess implementation of safe drinking water, rural sanitation and NREGA schemes, in Kolkata on June 01, 2007.jpg
The Minister of State for Railways, Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury addressing at the presentation of the National Awards for Outstanding Service in Railways, in Mumbai on April 16, 2013 (cropped).jpg
Leader Surjya Kanta Mishra Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury
Party CPI(M) INC
Alliance SM SM
Leader since 2015 2020
Leader's seat Did not contest Did not contest[b]
Last election 19.75% votes
26 seats 		12.25%, 44 seats
Seats won 0 0
Seat change Decrease 26 Decrease 44
Popular vote 6,017,573 1,757,131
Percentage 4.73% 2.93%
Swing Decrease 15.02 pp Decrease 9.32 pp
Map of the election results
Seats won in West Bengal Legislative Assembly
Chief Minister before election

Mamata Banerjee
AITC

Chief Minister after election

Mamata Banerjee
AITC

The 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election was the 17th quinquennial legislative election held in West Bengal, to elect all 294 members of West Bengal Legislative Assembly. This electoral process of 292 seats unfolded between 27 March to 29 April 2021, taking place in eight phases.[3] Voting for the two remaining constituencies was delayed to 30 September 2021.[4]

The incumbent All India Trinamool Congress government led by Mamata Banerjee won the election by a landslide, despite opinion polls generally predicting a close race against the Bharatiya Janata Party, which became the official opposition with 77 seats. The Indian Secular Front won one seat, and the Indian National Congress and the Left Front did not win any seats.[5]

Background

Electoral system

Outlined in Article 168 of the Constitution of India, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly is the only house of the unicameral legislature of West Bengal, not a permanent body, and subject to dissolution.[6] The assembly term lasts for five years unless it is dissolved earlier. Members of the Legislative Assembly are directly elected by the people, and the tenure of the Sixteenth West Bengal Legislative Assembly was scheduled to end on 30 May 2021.[7]

Previous general election

In the 2016 election, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC or TMC) retained its majority in the Legislative Assembly with 211 seats. The Indian National Congress won 44 seats and the Left Front won 33 seats from their alliance, while the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha won 3 seats each out of the total 294 seats.[8]

Political developments

Since the by-elections held for the Kanthi South seat in 2017, it became evident that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had overtaken the Left Front as the primary opposition party in the state.[9] According to various political analysts, the shifting of the Left Front and other opposition voters towards the BJP caused the party's vote share to significantly increase.[10][11] In spite of widespread violence, the BJP emerged as the second largest party in the 2018 elections to the state panchayats mainly due to the shifting of the Left Front's voter base. The long-held stereotype of Bengali Hindus being averse to right-wing politics was shattered when the BJP won the 2018 assembly elections in Tripura, another Indian state with a Bengali Hindu majority, ruled till then by CPI(M)-led alliance of Communist parties since 1993.

Results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal broken down into Vidhan Sabha level
Party 2016 West Bengal Vidhan Sabha election 2016 voteshare West Bengal Vidhan Sabha segments (as of 2019 India Lok Sabha election)[12][13] 2019 voteshare Change in seats Change in voteshare (in terms of pp)
BJP 3 10.16% 121 40.7% Increase 118 Increase 30.54
INC 44 12.25% 9 5.67% Decrease 35 Decrease 6.58
TMC 211 44.91% 164 43.3% Decrease 47 Decrease 1.61
LF 32 19.75% 0 6.33% Decrease 32 Decrease 13.42
Others 1 2.26% 0 NA Decrease 1 NA

In the 2019 general elections, the BJP increased its number of Lok Sabha seats from 2 to 18, and took 40% of the vote share, an increase from 11% in the 2016 elections. Trinamool Congress (TMC) was reduced from 34 to 22 seats, Indian National Congress (INC) was reduced from 4 to 2 seats, and for the first time since their individual inceptions, no party from the Left Front (namely CPI(M), CPI, AIFB & RSP) was able to win a single seat from the state.[14] This was the best ever performance of the BJP in the state (where it had never won more than 2 seats) in terms of both seats & voteshare. Public anger towards corruption and hooliganism of a section of TMC cadres in rural areas during the 2018 panchayat elections, religious polarisation by BJP fueled by resentment of a section of Bengali Hindu society towards Mamata Banerjee's tactics of Muslim appeasement,[15] and large scale support of the Rajbongshi and Matua communities for granting Indian citizenship to exclusively non-Muslim Bangladeshi immigrants[16] over fears of a demographic change fuelled by infiltration of undocumented Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, allegedly supported by Mamata Banerjee have been cited as important reasons behind the rise of BJP in West Bengal alongside the decline of Left Front.

With Narendra Modi becoming the only non-Congress prime minister to remain in power for two consecutive terms (amounting to ten years) without depending on the support of the National Democratic Alliance, and the BJP fulfilling the wish of its founder Shyamaprasad Mukherjee[c] by revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir[17] and long standing promise of resolving the Ayodhya dispute in favour of Hindus, the party considered the formation of a BJP-led state government in West Bengal (a state which has historically never voted for right-wing parties in large numbers) for the first time as a means of paying homage to Mukherjee, who hailed from there. A BJP victory in West Bengal would have also demoralised Mamata Banerjee's attempts of creating a non-BJP non-Congress alliance of regional parties that might play an important role in the upcoming general elections.[18][19]

BJP increased their seats in the assembly from 3 to 53 when the West Bengal Legislative Assembly was dissolved through defections from TMC, INC, and Left Front leaders, and by-elections from 2016 to 2021. A prominent defector in December 2020 was Suvendu Adhikari,[20] who was a long-time associate of Mamata Banerjee, and a state cabinet minister who was dissatisfied over the rising influence of her nephew Abhishek Banerjee in the party. However, Adhikari revealed that he was in contact with the BJP since 2014 after he joined the party.[21] His father Sisir Adhikari, the MP from Kanthi, also defected from TMC to BJP.[22] Another cabinet minister, Rajib Banerjee, also joined BJP.[23]

However, the TMC won the Kharagpur Sadar seat from BJP and Kaliaganj seat from the INC, while retaining the Karimpur seat in the by-polls held later in 2019[24] after Abhishek Banerjee employed Prashant Kishor as the election strategist of Trinamool Congress for the upcoming polls. Elections to municipal bodies of West Bengal (which include 112 municipalities[d] and the municipal corporations of Kolkata, Howrah, Bidhannagar, Chandannagar, Asansol and Siliguri) could not be held as scheduled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

Political issues

COVID-19

The pandemic became an election issue.[29][30] The government was accused of "fudging" the count of positive cases and deaths in the region,[31] and the AITC-led state government and BJP-led union government blamed each other for the surge in COVID-19 infections over the course of the campaign.[32]

The BJP accused Mamata Banerjee of not attending COVID-19 emergency management meetings held during the months of election campaigning, despite the second wave of infections,[33] and for also holding election rallies. Sanjukta Morcha held the first Brigade rally ahead of polling in West Bengal.[34] In mid-April, TMC requested holding the remaining phases of the elections in a single phase amid the rising number of COVID cases,[35] but it was rejected by the Election Commission of India (ECI).[36]

Cyclone Amphan

Post Cyclone Amphan situation of Deshbandhu park in Kolkata.

In May 2020, a year before the 2021 elections, Cyclone Amphan hit the state.[37][29] After it passed, widespread allegations of mismanagement[38] and relief scam were reported.[39][40] Protests broke out in some districts over the allegations,[41][42] and the opposition made it an election issue ahead of the Assembly polls.[43][44]

Citizenship, immigration and refugee issues

In 2019, the BJP-led Union Government passed the CAA in Parliament, promising citizenship to immigrants and refugees belonging to religious minorities in Bangladesh, and providing them with rehabilitation.[9][45] The BJP's Bengali booklet released in January 2020 claimed that the National Register of Citizens was implemented to identify allegedly undocumented illegal Muslim immigrants, but religiously persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Parsi, and other religious minorities would be "shielded" by the CAA.[46][47]

Other issues

Polarisation amongst various religious, linguistic, and caste communities were also likely to play a role in this election.[48] Both TMC and BJP had promised schemes for various communities.[49][50] Although previously mobilized by Left governments against elites under the "class" narrative, the Dalits of West Bengal began to assert their identity politically.[51][52][53] Religious polarization is particularly intense in districts bordering Bangladesh, such as North 24 Parganas. Arguments regarding who are native to the state and constituencies were also likely to impact the elections.[54][55][56] Dissatisfaction and defection of many TMC leaders to BJP, allegedly due to rising influence of Abhishek Banerjee and Kishor in party administration was also likely to impact the elections.[57]

An event was organised by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in Kolkata's Victoria Memorial to commemorate Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's 125th birth anniversary, which was attended by PM Narendra Modi and CM Mamata Banerjee among others. A large number of BJP activists were present in the crowd.[58][59] Just as Banerjee got up to speak, BJP supporters started chanting "Jai Shri Ram" which prompted the CM to abandon her speech.[60] This incident led to a political slugfest between the BJP and the TMC ahead of the upcoming elections. Meanwhile, Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh made controversial remarks about Netaji.[61] Mamata claimed that the BJP had "insulted Netaji and Bengal" by their actions.[62][63] The BJP leadership criticised Banerjee while the Left Front and the Congress backed her and condemned the BJP for the incident of Victoria Memorial.[64][65][66] Not only political personalities but also non-political people from different levels of the society, including Netaji's grandnephew Sugata Bose, condemned the incident of chanting religiopolitical slogans by BJP supporters which was unlikely for an apolitical event dedicated to Netaji.[67][68][69]

Schedule

The Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora holding a press conference to announce the schedule for Legislative Assembly election of West Bengal along with Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry, in New Delhi on 26 February 2021. The Election Commissioners, Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar and the senior officials of ECI are also seen.

The election schedule was announced on 26 February 2021, and the election was held in eight phases from 27 March 2021 to 29 April 2021. Votes were counted on 2 May 2021.[70][71] On the day of announcement, the ECI declared that physically disabled and elderly voters would get the benefit of postal voting and the time limit for voting was extended by one hour.[72][73] Due to polling abnormalities, re-polling for booth number 88 in Jangipara was held in the fourth phase.[74] The elections in Jangipur and Samserganj were adjourned due to the death of the INC candidate in Samserganj and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) candidate in Jangipur.[75] Polling for these two seats was originally rescheduled to 13 May 2021,[76] but as that day was Eid, it was pushed back to 16 May.[77] Later on ECI adjourned polling for both constituencies and it took place on 30 September.[78] Repolling at the Amtali Madhyamik Siksha Kendra polling station in Sitalkuchi was conducted on 29 April, after CISF personnel were fired on 10 April.[79]

Schedule
Poll Event Phase
I II III IV V VI VII VIII —
Map of constituencies and their phases
No. of Constituencies 30 30 31 44 45 43 34 35 2
Date of Issue of Notification 2 March 2021 5 March 2021 12 March 2021 16 March 2021 23 March 2021 26 March 2021 31 March 2021 31 March 2021 —
Last Date for filling nomination 9 March 2021 12 March 2021 19 March 2021 23 March 2021 30 March 2021 3 April 2021 7 April 2021 7 April 2021 26 April 2021[e]
Scrutiny of nomination 11 March 2021 15 March 2021 20 March 2021 24 March 2021 31 March 2021 5 April 2021 8 April 2021 8 April 2021 27 April 2021[e]
Last Date for Withdrawal of nomination 12 March 2021 17 March 2021 22 March 2021 26 March 2021 3 April 2021 7 April 2021 12 April 2021 12 April 2021 29 April 2021[e]
Date of Poll 27 March 2021 1 April 2021 6 April 2021 10 April 2021 17 April 2021 22 April 2021 26 April 2021 29 April 2021 30 September 2021[4]
Date of Counting of Votes 2 May 2021 3 October 2021[4]

Parties and alliances

All India Trinamool Congress +

Map of the seat sharing arrangements of the All India Trinamool Congress for the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election.

Both factions of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) expressed support for TMC in the assembly election.[82] TMC allotted three seats in the Darjeeling to GJM, but its two factions, namely Bimal and Binoy, declared fielding their candidates in each of the three seats.[83] RJD, Shiv Sena, and JMM also endorsed Trinamool for the election.[84][85][86] TMC supported Independent candidate in Joypur after their candidate's nomination was cancelled.[87][88]

Party Symbol Leader Contesting Seats
All India Trinamool Congress AITC Mamata Banerjee 290
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha GJM Unrecognised Bimal Gurung 3
Binoy Tamang
Independent N/A 1

Sanjukta Morcha

On 28 January 2021 Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury announced that seat-sharing talks between the Congress and Left Front had concluded for 193 seats and that the remaining 101 seats would be decided at a later point.[89][90] Out of the 193 seats agreed upon by 28 January 92 went to Congress and 101 to the Left Front.[89] Left Front & Congress announced from a rally at the Brigade Parade ground on 28 February 2021 that they would form an alliance called Sanyukta Morcha with a newly-formed outfit called ISF.[91] ISF initially claimed that they secured 30 seats from the Left Front's quota.[92] After the final seat sharing agreement was concluded, it was announced that the Left Front would contest 165 seats, Congress 92 seats, and ISF 37 seats.[93][94]

Left Front chairman Biman Bose announced the candidates for the first and second-phase elections on 5 March alongside INC and ISF leaders, leaving seats for them in the list.[95] INC revealed its first list of 13 candidates for the first two phases on 6 March.[96] Left Front announced its second list of candidates on 10 March, consisting of several new and young faces from All India Students Federation (AISF), All India Youth Federation (AIYF), Students' Federation of India (SFI), and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), along with ex-ministers of the Left Front government and ex-MPs;[97] Bose also nominated DYFI West Bengal state president Minakshi Mukherjee as the CPI(M) candidate for the Nandigram seat, which was kept vacant in the first list published on 5 March.[98] On 14 March, INC revealed their second list of 34 candidates on 14 March,[99] and ISF their first set of 20 candidates.[100] Sanyukta Morcha announced 15 more candidates on 17 March consisting of 9 from the Left Front, 2 from INC, and 4 from ISF.[101] INC revealed their third list of 39 candidates on 20 March,[102] and two more on 22 March.

Map of the seat sharing arrangement between the parties of the Sanjukta Morcha for the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election.
Party Symbol Leader(s) Bloc(s) Contesting Seats[103]
Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M)
Surjya Kanta Mishra[104] Left Front 138
All India Forward Bloc AIFB
Debabrata Biswas 21
Revolutionary Socialist Party RSP
Biswanath Chowdhury 11
Communist Party of India CPI
Swapan Banerjee 10
Marxist Forward Bloc[f] MFB
Samar Hazra 1
Indian National Congress INC
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury United Progressive Alliance 92
Indian Secular Front[g] ISF[94]
Abbas Siddiqui - 32

National Democratic Alliance

Five hill-based parties pledged support to BJP ahead of the assembly election: Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists, Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL), Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Morcha, and SUMETI Mukti Morcha.[82] Hindu Samhati, a right-wing organisation in West Bengal, had withdrawn their support from the BJP at first[106] to contest the elections on their own,[107] but eventually they supported the BJP.[108] BJP allotted the Amta constituency seat to the president of Hindu Samhati to contest under the symbol of BJP.[109]

Map of the seat sharing arrangements of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election.

BJP also allotted the Baghmundi constituency, bordering Jharkhand, to the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU).[110][111]

Party Symbol Leader Seats
Bharatiya Janata Party BJP Dilip Ghosh 293
All Jharkhand Students Union AJSU Ashutosh Mahto 1

Others

Shiv Sena initially said that they would contest in around 100 seats,[112] but later on 4 March 2021 announced that they would not contest and would support Mamata Banerjee and TMC.[113]

Party Symbol Leader(s) Contesting Seats[103]
Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) SUCI(C) Provash Ghosh 188
Janata Dal (United)[114] JD(U) Sanjay Verma 16[115]
Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation[116] CPI(ML)L Dipankar Bhattacharya 12
Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Red Star[117] CPI(ML) Red Star K N Ramchandran 3
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen[118][119][120] AIMIM Asaduddin Owaisi 6[121][122][123]
Bahujan Samaj Party[124] BSP Mayawati 162
National People's Party[125] NPP 3

Candidates

Surveys and polls

Exit poll

On 27 March, the ECI banned the publication of surveys and exit polls until 7:30 pm on 29 April to prevent influencing voters,[126][127] but the ban ended half an hour earlier.[128]

Date published Polling agency Lead
AITC+ BJP+ SM Others
29 April 2021 ABP News – C-Voter[129][130] 152–164 109–121 14–25 – 31–55
42.1% 39.2% 15.4% 3.3% 2.9%
29 April 2021 NK Digital Magazine[131] (193+1)=194 73 22 3 121
30 April – 1 May 2021 Ekhon Biswa Bangla Sangbad[132][133][134] 217 63 10±2 2 154
30 April 2021 FAM Community[135] (182–1)=181 99 (12–1)=11 1 82
29 April 2021 DB Live[136][137] 154–169 94–109 24–34 0–1 45–75
29 April 2021 Drishtibhongi[138] 174 103 15 2 71
45% 38% 12% 5% 7%
29 April 2021 Ground Zero Research[139][140][141] 154–186 96–124 6–14 2–3 30–90
29 April 2021 IPSOS[140] 158 115 19 – 43
29 April 2021 Today's Chanakya[142] 169–191 97–119 0–8 0–3 50–94
46% 39% 9% 6% 7%
29 April 2021 ETG Research[143] 164–176 105–115 10–15 0–1 49–71
42.4% 39.1% 14.2% 4.3% 3.3%
29 April 2021 P-MARQ[144][145][146] 152–172 112–132 10–20 – 20–60
44% 40% 12% – 4%
29 April 2021 NEWSX – Polstrat[147][148][149] 152–162 115–125 16–26 – 27–47
29 April 2021 TV9 Bharatvarsh – Polstrat'[150][148][147] 142–152 125–135 16–26 – 7–27
43.9% 40.5% 10.7% 4.9% 3.4%
29 April 2021 India Today – Axis-My-India[151][146] 130–156 134–160 0–2 0–1 HUNG
44% 43% 10% 3% 1%
29 April 2021 India TV – Peoples Pulse[152] 64–88 173–192 7–12 – 85–128
29 April 2021 Jan-Ki-Baat[149][153][146] 104–121 162–185 3–9 – 58–64
44–45% 46–48% 5–8% 2% 1–4%
29 April 2021 Priyo Bandhu Media[154] 82 187 22 1 105
29 April 2021 Arambagh TV[155] 84–119 159–192 11–20 – 40–108
29 April 2021 Sudarshan News[156] 97–104 170–180 6–10 1–3 66–83
29 April 2021 The Enigmous[157] 188 91 13 0 97
Overall average 143–155 121–134 12–17 1 9–34

NK Digital Magazine's exit poll predicted victory for TMC in general election for the Samserganj seat and by-election for the Bhabanipur seat.[158][159][160] Ekhon Biswa Bangla Sangbad predicted TMC's victory in all three seats where elections took place on 30 September.[161]

Opinion poll

A number of pre-poll surveys for the elections were published by different agencies and groups in the span of one year until 27 March. Most polls contradicted each other regarding the possible outcome.[162]

Date published Polling agency Lead
AITC+ BJP+ SM Others
25 March 2021 P-Marq[163][144] 121–130 149–158 11–15 – 19–37
43% 42% 13% – 1%
25 March 2021 DB Live[164] 170–175 74–79 42–47 0–2 91–101
19–25 March 2021 Priyo Bandhu Media[165][166][167] 93 168 33 – 75
24 March 2021 Times Now C-Voter [168] 152–168 104–120 18–26 0–2 32–64
42% 37% 13% 8%
24 March 2021 TV9 Bharatvarsh [169] 146 122 23 3 HUNG
39.6% 37.1% 17.4% 5.9%
23 March 2021 ABP News – CNX[170] 136–146 130–140 14–18 1–3 HUNG
40% 38% 16% 6%
23 March 2021 India TV- Peoples Pulse[171] 95 183 16 0 88
23 March 2021 Jan-Ki-Baat[172][173] 118–134 150–162 10–14 0 16–44
44.1% 44.8% 7.5% 3%
20 March 2021 Polstrat[174] 163 102 29 0 61
44.4% 37.4% 11.7% – 7%
17 March 2021 Shining India[175] 157–179 78–100 28–42 0–4 57–101
15 March 2021 ABP News – C Voter[176][177][178] 150–166 98–114 23–31 3–5 36–52
43.4% 38.4% 12.7 5.5%
8 March 2021 ABP News – CNX[179] 154–164 102–112 22–30 01-03 42–62
42% 34% 20% 4%
8 March 2021 Times Now – C Voter[180] 146–162 99–112 29–37 0 31–63
42.2% 37.5% 14.8% 5.5%
24 February 2021 Times Democracy[165][147] 151 131 12 – 20
44.10% 39.61% 12.70% 3.59% 4.49%
13–14 February 2021 NK Digital Magazine[h][165][181] 192 69 30 3 123
49% 39% 10% 2% 10%

NK Digital Magazine's opinion poll predicted victory for TMC in Jangipur and Samserganj.[182][183][184] They also conducted a pre-poll survey across poll-bound Assembly constituencies that predicted TMC's victory.[185][186]

Election

COVID-19 guidelines

The ECI issued various health guidelines for conducting the elections, including the use of masks, sanitisation of the polling booths, use of thermal scanners before entering the polling booths, maintaining social distancing, and so forth.[187] The maximum number of voters for each polling station was lowered to 1000 from 1500.[188]

A volunteer conducting thermal screening on voters at a polling booth during the third phase of the West Bengal Assembly Election, in Uluberia, West Bengal, on 6 April 2021.

After COVID-19 cases increased in the state,[189] the ECI issued warnings for all recognised state and national political parties to strictly follow COVID-19 guidelines,[190] and banned all political rallies, public meetings, street plays and nukkad sabhas from 7 pm to 10 am starting from 16 April.[191] On 22 April 2021, before the seventh and eighth phases of voting, the ECI forbade roadshows, and added that at most 500 people were allowed in public meetings.[192] On 27 April, they issued a notification over banning victory processions on and after the day the votes were counted.[193]

Security preparations

An elderly voter casts her vote with the help of CAPF officers at 260 Bardhaman Dakshin Assembly constituency of the Purba Bardhaman district.

After several instances of violence, threats, and murders before the polls were announced, the ECI and the Home Ministry ordered twelve companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) to be deployed in West Bengal on 20 February. At least 125 more CAPF troops were dispatched to reach West Bengal on 25 February to focus on sensitive zones.[194] 60 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 30 companies of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), 25 companies of the Border Security Force (BSF) and five companies each of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).[195] The total number of central forces rose to 725,[196][197] before a final total of 1,000 companies after the third phase of polling.[198]

In the second phase of election, Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was implemented across areas in the Tamluk and Haldia subdivisions.[199] After the fourth phase of polling, the ECI deployed an extra 71 companies of central forces.[200]

Voting

Polling officials carrying the electronic voting machines and other necessary devices required for the West Bengal Assembly Election at a distribution centre in Uluberia, West Bengal, on 5 April 2021.
First time voters election ink marks after casting their vote at a polling booth during the fourth phase of the West Bengal Assembly Election at Nehru Colony Primary School, Regent Park, Kolkata, West Bengal, on 10 April 2021.
Voters standing in a queue to cast their votes at a polling booth during the third phase of the West Bengal Assembly Election, in Uluberia, West Bengal, on 6 April 2021.

Voter turnout

Phase wise voter turnout
Phase Seats Voters Polled Turnout
I
30
7,380,942
 84.63%
II
30
7,594,549
 86.11%
III
31
7,852,425
 84.61%
IV
44
11,581,022
 79.90%
V
45
11,347,344
 82.49%
VI
43
10,387,791
 82.00%
VII
34
8,188,907
 76.89%
VIII
35
8,477,728
 78.32%
Later
2
490,212
[201][202]
Total
294
73,298,428
59,935,989 82.30%
  • Number of general voters: 73,294,980
    • Male voters: 37,366,306
    • Female voters: 35,927,084
    • Non-binary voters: 1,590
  • Number of service voters: 112,642
  • Overseas voters: 210
  • Total number of voters: 73,407,832
  • Polling stations: 101,916[203][204][205]

Phases

Phase Description Citation
I Nearly 74 lakh voters across 10,288 polling stations of West Bengal were registered in this phase of election. Webcasting was arranged for 5,392 polling stations. During this phase, a total of 10,288 Ballot Units (BUs), 10,288 Control Units (CUs) and 10,288 Voter-verified paper audit trails (VVPATs) were used in West Bengal. [206]
II Nearly 73 lakh electorates across 10,592 polling stations of West Bengal were registered in this phase of election. Webcasting were arranged for 5,535 polling stations. During this phase, a total of 10,620 BUs, 10,620 CUs, and 10,620 VVPATs were used. 1,137 Flying Squads (FS) and 1,012 Static Surveillance Teams (SST) checked the transfer of cash, liquor, drugs and freebies. 3 Air Intelligence Units (AIU) of the IT Department were also set up at Kolkata, Andal, Durgapur and Bagdogra. 14,499 cases of Model Code of Conduct violations were reported in West Bengal with 11,630 detained until 4:30 pm of voting day. [207]
III A total of 7,852,425 voters were eligible to vote in 10,871 polling stations, out of which, 64,083 were physically disabled voters, and 126,177 voters were above the age of 80. 22 general observers, 7 police observers and 9 expenditure observers were deployed. [208]
IV A total of 11,581,022 voters were eligible to vote in this phase of election, of which 50,523 were physically disabled voters, and 203,927 were voters above the age of 80. [209]
V A total of 11,347,344 voters were eligible to vote in this phase of election, of which 60,198 were physically disabled, and 179,634 were above the age of 80. [210]
VI A total of 10,387,791 voters were eligible to vote in this phase of election, of which 64,266 were physically disabled and 157,290 were above the age of 80. [211]
VII A total of 8,188,907 voters were eligible to vote in this phase of election, of which 50,919 were physically disabled and 101,689 were above the age of 80. [79]
VIII A total of 8,478,274 voters were eligible to vote in this phase of election, of which 72,094 were physically disabled, and 112,440 were above the age of 80. [79]

Incidents

  • In February, Jakir Hossain, the MLA from Jangipur and Labour Minister of West Bengal, received serious injuries after bombs were thrown at him in the Nimtita railway station.[212][213][214]
  • On their way to attend the Brigade rally of Sanjukta Morcha, ISF workers attacked TMC activists in Bhangar.[215]
  • On 10 March, Mamata Banerjee filed her nomination at the Haldia sub-divisional office headquarters as the TMC candidate for Nandigram. Around 6:15 pm she was injured when she was leaving the Birulia market area of that constituency. She alleged that she was pushed by "four-five people" who manhandled her and slammed the door of her car on her foot. She was taken to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata for treatment.[216] BJP MP Subramanian Swamy made a direct call to her office and inquired about her health before giving a statement wishing her good health.[217] A day after being injured, Mamata Banerjee released a video message urging people and party workers to be calm and exercise restraint.[218][219] Two days after being admitted, she was discharged at the TMC's multiple requests.[220] She alleged that the attack was orchestrated by Adhikari, who denied the claim. Eyewitness Nitai Maity, a sweet shopkeeper, said "[t]he crowd was already there. But as soon as the car arrived, it was as if the area was flooded with people. There was a bit of pushing. In the meantime, Mamata Banerjee had just opened the front door of the car and had just stepped out. Suddenly there was a push from outside and the door closed. Mamata Banerjee suddenly fell to the ground with a severe leg injury."[221] Medinipur DIG Kunal Agarwal, District Magistrate Bivu Goel, and Superintendent of Police Praveen Prakash went to Birulia Bazar, Nandigram, on Thursday morning to collect eyewitness statements before sending their report to the ECI, whose report on the incident officially ruled out any possibility of foul play and suspended two police officers for being absent from the chief minister's convoy of policemen meant to provide her safety. TMC and BJP workers clashed in front of the DM and the SP. Mamata Banerjee continued to campaign, and the BJP accused of her of trying to gain the voters' sympathy by flaunting her injured leg in an attempt to "[play] the victim card". Some self-proclaimed eyewitnesses claimed that the car door collided with an iron beam embedded on the road, but Firhad Hakim stated that it had no scratches.[222][223] TMC leaders stated that most of those who were giving eyewitness statements were BJP staff members[224][225] and asked, "If they are really 'eyewitnesses' then why did they go near the Chief Minister's convoy in that crowd (despite being workers of the BJP)?" Paritosh Jana, TMC President of the Birulia region, said, "The BJP had planted some drunken people into the crowd. They attacked the Chief Minister pretending to have a view of her. They pushed the Supremo when she opened the car's door and was about to step out. The CM did not name any political party. She had only spoken of miscreants. But the BJP is opposing in advance. (They are) giving slogans against the CM. We firmly believe that it is the work of the BJP. It's just like 'the loud voice of a thief's mother' (Bangla version of the proverb 'rogues supplant justice')."[226]
  • On 15 March, Mamata Banerjee claimed that at a political rally in Balarampur that goons were entering through the border of Ajodhya Hills area. She accused the BJP of planning to loot votes by sending goons from outside by trains on the eve of the election in order to intimidate voters.[227] On 23 March, she repeated these claims and made demands to seal the border areas.[228] On 26 February, Kolkata TV had reported on BJP workers entering West Bengal from the Hindi Belt. Each of them was given 300 rupees per day.[229] On 29 April, some miscreants with firearms were caught on Kolkata TV cameras in Birbhum. They claimed to be outsiders and said that they were hired to do this for 10,000 rupees.[230])
  • In Baruipur, a TMC activist was killed in clash with members of CPI(M) and ISF.[231][232][233]
  • Before the first phase of election, an election vehicle was set on fire by two unknown men.[234]
  • On 25 March, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh made derogatory comments against Mamata Banerjee from a political rally in Purulia for which he was issued a notice by the ECI. He raised questions on her character due to her unmarried status and stated that if she wants to flaunt her injured leg before the public to gain political dividends, then she should wear bermuda shorts (euphemism for underwear in Indian English) instead of a saree.[235]
  • On 27 March, the day of first phase polling, TMC supporters protested outside booth 172 of Majna of the South Contai seat, alleging electronic voting machine malfunction. They alleged that casting a vote for TMC displayed the lotus sign of BJP. Similar allegations came from the closest booth to it.[236][237][238]
  • Two security personnel were reportedly injured in Satsatmal village, Purba Medinipur district, in a firing and bombing incident during phase 1 of polling.[239]
  • A BJP worker's dead body was found in Paschim Medinipur during the first phase of election.[240] The ECI said that they did not find any political motive in his death.[241]
  • Three TMC activists were injured in a blast in Bankura during the first phase of elections.[242]
  • Three TMC workers were attacked in Boyal of Nandigram. One of them, Rabin Manna, was admitted to SSKM Hospital with serious injuries, and died on 9 April around 4:30 am at SSKM Hospital.[243] On 31 March, Mamata Banerjee said that her car was attacked again in Nandigram a day ago when she visited Manna's house.[244][245][246][247][248] She later claimed she was informed by Manna's wife that BJP-backed goons were threatening to abduct her daughter and they had to take refuge with a local minority family.[249]
  • In Dantan, it was reported that the CPRF prevented people from voting. A complaint was lodged at a local police station that alleged that the CPRF were allowing BJP workers to stay in the booth and cast votes in their name.[250]
  • While on an official visit to Bangladesh, Modi visited the birthplace of Harichand Thakur at Orakandi in the Gopalganj district in an attempt to woo the electorally influential Matua community of the state. Mamata Banerjee asserted his trip to Orakandi is a violation of the poll code.[251][252]
  • On 28 March, the ECI stated that 56 bombs were seized from Narendrapur of South 24 Parganas district.[253]
  • During the nomination filing by the BJP candidate in Bijpur, gunshots were fired and later clashes broke out between BJP and TMC staff.[254]
  • On 30 March, Ashok Dinda, BJP's candidate from Moyna, Purba Medinipur, was attacked and his vehicle vandalised during a campaign. He claimed that hundreds of people wielding lathi and rods hurled stones at his vehicle. Dinda's shoulder was injured.[255]
  • On 2 April, the West Bengal Police seized 41 crude bombs in Bhangar.[256]
  • During the third phase of polling (6 April), Sujata Mondal, TMC candidate in Arambag, was attacked by some goons at Arandi-I booth 263.[257][258][259]
  • During the third phase of polling, electronic voting machines and VVPAT machines were found in the house of a TMC politician of North Uluberia. The sector officer was later suspended.[260]
  • The TMC accused the BJP of distributing cash coupons among people to lure them to attend Modi's rally.[261][262]
  • In the fourth phase of polling, there were two major instances of violence, both in the Sitalkuchi constituency of the Cooch Behar district. In Pathantuli, a first-time voter, Ananda Barman, was shot and killed by unknown assailants after casting his vote. Both BJP and TMC claimed he was one of their workers, but family members said he was a belonged to BJP.[263] In Sitalkuchi, CISF personnel who were guarding a polling station in Jorepatki shot and killed four Muslim villagers, who they alleged were part of a mob attacking them. They claimed the mob attacked them over rumours the security forces had thrashed a local boy and they fired in self-defence. The families of the deceased claimed the firing was deliberate, and that they were in a queue to vote.[264][265] Media staff found video footage from local sources,[266] but Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey called it fake without citing any proper reason.[267]
  • On 8 April the ECI issued a notice to Adhikari for communal overtones in his 29 March speech in Nandigram, where he derogatorily referred Mamata Banerjee (who is unmarried) as begum ("a married Muslim woman", thereby indicating that she was characterless).[268][269][270] In his reply to the ECI notice, Adhikari claimed that he never made any personal attack or derogatory remarks against any political leader, but on 13 April, the ECI issued another warning to him for making derogatory statements in his speech.[271]
  • On 12 April, the ECI imposed a 24-hour campaign ban on Mamata Banerjee (effective from 8 pm) for calling out female voters to gherao (or encircle) the CRPF, CAPF and CISF forces on election duty if they "created any obstruction in their right to vote" from a political rally in Cooch Behar district.[272] The next day, the TMC Supremo staged a solitary dharna next to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the Mayo Road crossing in Kolkata to protest against the ECI's decision.[273][274] On the same day, the ECI let Adhikari go with only a warning after he commented that voting in favour of Mamata Banerjee would convert West Bengal into a "mini-Pakistan", which led the TMC to allege that the ECI was operating in a biased manner to benefit BJP.[275][276]
  • On 13 April, the ECI imposed a 48-hour campaign ban on former state BJP president Rahul Sinha for endorsing the killing of Muslims in the Sitalkuchi firing incident, and calling for more Muslims to be killed throughout the state in similar manner.[277]
  • On the night before the fifth phase, a picture of the BJP candidate for Ranaghat having lunch with central forces spread on the internet.[278][279]
  • In the fifth phase of polling, in the Shantinagar locality of Bidhannagar, bricks and stones were hurled between TMC and BJP booth workers, leaving eight people injured.[280][281]
  • BJP candidate Gopal Chandra Saha was shot at while campaigning in Maldaha, and was admitted to a hospital.[282]
  • In Jalpaiguri, after polling ended, four BJP agents were found with central force personnel carrying electronic voting machines.[283]
  • On 24 April, Mamata Banerjee revealed details of the WhatsApp chat of an election observer employed by the ECI with BJP leaders, and said, "The Commission is instructing to arrest our party leaders before the [day of] election. I have WhatsApp chat of everything. Observers have spoken among themselves [about this]." She advised Anubrata Mandal, TMC's Birbhum district president, to go to the courts if the commission wrongfully keeps him under surveillance.[284][285] The ECI put Mondal under "strict surveillance" for 62 hours from 5 pm on 27 April to 7 am on 30 April.[286])
  • On 29 April, during the eighth phase of voting, crude bombs were hurled near Mahajati Sadan in northern Kolkata.[287]

Results

The election results for 292 constituencies was announced on 2 May 2021 after counting of votes began at 8:00 am (UTC+5:30), while the results for 2 constituencies was delayed until 3 October.[288][289][290][291][292]

215 77 1 1
AITC BJP ISF GJM (T)

Vote share by alliance

  AITC (48.02%)
  BJP (37.97%)
  Sanjukta Morcha (10.04%)
  NOTA (1.08%)
  Others (2.88%)

Results by party

  • Declared on 2 May 2021:[293]
Party/Alliance Popular vote Seats
Votes % ±pp Contested Won +/−
TMC+ All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) 28,735,420 48.02 Increase 290 215 Increase2
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) (T) Faction 163,797 0.27 Steady 3 1 Increase1
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) (G) Faction 103,190 0.17 Decrease 3 0 Decrease3
Total 48.46 294 216
NDA Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 22,850,710 37.97 Increase 293 77 Increase74
All Jharkhand Students Union 61,936 0.1 Steady 1 0 Steady
Total 37.98 77
Sanjukta Morcha
Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) 2,837,276 4.73 Decrease 138 0 Decrease26
Indian National Congress (INC) 1,757,131 2.93 Decrease 91 0 Decrease44
Indian Secular Front (ISF) 813,489 1.36 Steady 32 1 Increase1
All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) 318,932 0.53 Decrease 21 0 Decrease3
Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) 126,121 0.21 Decrease 10 0 Decrease2
Communist Party Of India (CPI) 118,655 0.20 Decrease 10 0 Decrease1
Total 10.04 294 1
Other parties
Independents 646,829 1.08
NOTA
Total 59,935,989 100.0 292 ±0
Valid votes 59,935,989 99.84
Invalid votes 96,674 0.16
Votes cast / turnout 60,032,663 82.32
Abstentions 12,891,443 17.68
Registered voters 72,924,106
[i]
  • Declared on 3 October 2021:[294][295]
Political Parties Results of remaining Constituencies
(declared on 3 October) 		Complete Results of 294 Constituencies
Popular vote Seats Popular vote Seats
Votes % Contested Won Votes % ±pp Contested Won +/−
AITC 232,861 60.19 2 2 28,968,281 48.02 Increase 290 215 Increase4
BJP 54,764 14.16 2 0 22,905,474 37.97 Increase 293 77 Increase74
CPI(M) 6,158 1.59 1 0 2,843,434 4.71 Decrease 139 0 Decrease26
INC 70,038 18.10 1 0 1,827,169 3.03 Decrease 92 0 Decrease44
RSP 9,067 2.34 1 0 135,188 0.22 Decrease 11 0 Decrease2
NOTA 7,621 1.97 654,449 1.08
Total 386,845 100.00 2 60,322,834 100.00 294
Valid votes 386,845 99.95 60,322,834 99.84
Invalid votes 183 0.05 96,857 0.16
Votes cast / turnout 387,028 78.88 60,419,691 82.30
Abstentions 103,614 21.12 12,995,057 17.70
Registered voters 490,642
[296][297] 		100.00 73,414,748 100.00

Alliance-wise results

AITC and allies BJP and allies Sanjukta Morcha
Party Seats Popular vote Party Seats Popular vote Party Seats Popular vote
AITC+ Contesting Winning Votes % ±pp BJP+ Contesting Seats Winning Seats Votes % ±pp SM Contesting Seats Winning Seats
All India Trinamool Congress 290 215 +4 Bharatiya Janata Party 293 77 +74 Indian National Congress 92 0 −44
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Gurung) 3 0 −3 All Jharkhand Students Union 1 0 0 Communist Party of India (Marxist) 139 0 −26
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Tamang) 1 +1 Communist Party of India 10 0 −1
Independent politician (IND) 1 0 35,429[298][299] 0.06 Revolutionary Socialist Party 11 0 −3
All India Forward Bloc 21 0 -2
Indian Secular Front 32 1 +1
Total 216 +5 Total 77 Total 1

Vote share by Party

  AITC (48.02%)
  BJP (37.97%)
  CPI(M) (4.71%)
  INC (3.03%)
  ISF (1.35%)
  AIFB (0.53%)
  RSP (0.22%)
  CPI (0.20%)
  AJSU (0.10%)
  NOTA (1.08%)
  Others (2.78%)

Seat share by alliance

  AITC (73.13%)
  BJP (26.19%)
  SM (0.34%)
  GJM (T) (0.34%)

Results by polling phase

Phase of Elections Total Seats All India Trinamool Congress Bharatiya Janata Party SM Others
First phase 30 18 12 0 0
Second phase 30 19 11 0 0
Third phase 31 27 4 0 0
Fourth phase 44 31 12 1 0
Fifth phase 45 28 17 0 0
Sixth phase 43 35 8 0 0
Seventh phase 34 25 9 0 0
Eighth phase 35 31 4 0 0
Later 2 2 0 0 0
Total 294 216 77 1 0

Region-wise results

Region Name Seats AITC BJP OTH
North Bengal 54 23 Decrease 1 30 Increase 25 01 Decrease 24
South Bengal 184 159 Increase 16 24 Increase 24 01 Decrease 40
Rarh Banga 56 33 Decrease 11 23 Increase 22 00 Decrease 11
Total seats 294 216 Increase 04 77 Increase 71 2 Decrease75

Constituency-wise results

Assembly Constituency Winner Runner Up Margin
# Name Party Candidate Votes % Party Candidate Votes %
Cooch Behar district
1 Mekliganj (SC) AITC Paresh Chandra Adhikary 99,338 49.98 BJP Dadhiram Ray 84,653 42.59 14,685
2 Mathabhanga (SC) BJP Sushil Barman 1,13,249 52.87 AITC Girindra Nath Barman 87,115 40.67 26,134
3 Cooch Behar Uttar (SC) BJP Sukumar Roy 1,20,483 49.40 AITC Binay Krishna Barman 1,05,868 43.40 14,615
4 Cooch Behar Dakshin BJP Nikhil Ranjan Dey 96,629 46.83 AITC Avijit De Bhowmik 91,830 44.31 4,799
5 Sitalkuchi (SC) BJP Baren Chandra Barman 1,24,955 50.80 AITC Partha Pratim Ray 1,07,140 43.56 17,815
6 Sitai (SC) AITC Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia 1,17,908 49.42 BJP Dipak Kumar Roy 1,07,796 45.18 10,112
7 Dinhata BJP Nisith Pramanik 1,16,035 47.60 AITC Udayan Guha 1,15,978 47.58 57
8 Natabari BJP Mihir Goswami 1,11,743 51.45 AITC Rabindra Nath Ghosh 88,303 40.66 23,440
9 Tufanganj BJP Malati Rava Roy 1,14,503 54.69 AITC Pranab Kumar Dey 83,305 39.79 31,198
Alipurduar district
10 Kumargram (ST) BJP Manoj Kumar Oraon 1,11,974 48.16 AITC Leos Kujar 1,00,973 43.43 11,001
11 Kalchini (ST) BJP Bishal Lama 1,03,104 52.65 AITC Pasang Lama 74,528 38.06 28,576
12 Alipurduars BJP Suman Kanjilal 1,07,333 48.19 AITC Sourav Chakraborty 91,326 41.00 16,007
13 Falakata BJP Dipak Barman 1,02,993 46.71 AITC Subhash Chanda Roy 99,003 44.90 3,990
14 Madarihat BJP Manoj Tigga 90,718 54.35 AITC Rajesh Lakra 61,033 36.56 29,685
Jalpaiguri district
15 Dhupguri (SC) BJP Bishnu Pada Ray 1,04,688 45.64 AITC Mitali Roy 1,00,333 43.75 4,355
16 Maynaguri (SC) BJP Kaushik Roy 1,15,306 48.84 AITC Manoj Roy 1,03,395 43.79 11,911
17 Jalpaiguri (SC) AITC Pradip Kumar Barma 95,668 42.34 BJP Sujit Singha 94,727 41.93 941
18 Rajganj (SC) AITC Khageswar Roy 1,04,641 48.5 BJP Supen Roy 88,868 41.19 15,773
19 Dabgram-Phulbari BJP Sikha Chatterjee 1,29,088 49.85 AITC Goutam Deb 1,01,495 39.19 27,593
20 Mal (ST) AITC Bulu Chik Baraik 99,086 46.46 BJP Mahesh Bagey 93,621 43.9 5,465
21 Nagrakata (ST) BJP Puna Bhengra 70,945 47.78 AITC Joseph Munda 56,543 38.08 14,402
Kalimpong district
22 Kalimpong GJM (Tamang) Ruden Sada Lepcha 58,206 37.59 BJP Suva Pradhan 54,336 35.09 3870
Darjeeling district
23 Darjeeling BJP Neeraj Zimba 68,907 40.88 GJM (Tamang) Keshav Raj Sharma 47,631 28.26 21,726
24 Kurseong BJP Bishnu Prasad Sharma 73,475 41.86 GJM (Tamang) Tshering Lama Dahal 57,960 33.02 15,515
25 Matigara-Naxalbari (SC) BJP Anandamoy Barman 1,39,785 58.10 AITC Rajen Sundas 68,454 28.65 70,848
26 Siliguri BJP Sankar Ghosh 89,370 50.03 AITC Om Prakash Mishra 53,784 30.11 35,586
27 Phansidewa (ST) BJP Durga Murmu 1,05,651 50.89 AITC Choton Kisku 77,940 37.55 27,711
Uttar Dinajpur district
28 Chopra AITC Hamidul Rahaman 1,24,923 61.2 BJP Md. Shahin Akhtar 59,604 29.4 65,319
29 Islampur AITC Abdul Karim Chowdhury 1,00,131 58.91 BJP Saumya Roop Mandal 62,691 36.88 37,440
30 Goalpokhar AITC Md. Ghulam Rabbani 1,05,649 65.4 BJP Gulam Sarwar 32,135 19.89 73,514
31 Chakulia AITC Minhajul Arfin Azad 86,311 49.78 BJP Sachin Prasad 52,474 30.26 33,837
32 Karandighi AITC Goutam Pal 1,16,594 54.7 BJP Subhash Singha 79,968 37.52 36,626
33 Hemtabad (SC) AITC Satyajit Burman 1,16,425 52.14 BJP Chandima Roy 89,210 39.95 27,215
34 Kaliaganj (SC) BJP Soumen Roy 1,16,768 48.71 AITC Tapan Dev Singha 94,948 39.61 21,820
35 Raiganj BJP Krishna Kalyani 79,775 49.44 AITC Kanaia Lal Agarwal 59,027 36.58 20,748
36 Itahar AITC Mosaraf Hossain 1,14,645 59.10 BJP Amit Kumar Kundu 70,670 36.43 43,975
Dakshin Dinajpur district
37 Kushmandi (SC) AITC Rekha Roy 89,968 48.88 BJP Ranjit Kumar Roy 77,384 42.08 12,584
38 Kumarganj AITC Toraf Hossain Mondal 89,117 52.58 BJP Manas Sarkar 59,736 35.24 29,381
39 Balurghat BJP Ashok Lahiri 70,484 47.25 AITC Sekhar Dasgupta 57,585 38.60 12,899
40 Tapan (ST) BJP Budhrai Tudu 84,381 45.29 AITC Kalpana Kisku 82,731 44.41 1,650
41 Gangarampur (SC) BJP Satyendra Nath Ray 88,724 46.82 AITC Goutam Das 84,132 44.40 4,592
42 Harirampur AITC Biplab Mitra 96,131 51.23 BJP Nilanjan Roy 73,459 39.15 22,672
Malda district
43 Habibpur (ST) BJP Joyel Murmu 94,075 47.52 AITC Prodip Baskey 74,558 37.66 19,517
44 Gazole (SC) BJP Chinmoy Deb Barman 1,00,131 45.5 AITC Basanti Barman 98,857 44.69 1,798
45 Chanchal AITC Nihar Ranjan Ghosh 1,15,966 58.08 BJP Dipankar Ram 48,628 24.35 67,338
46 Harishchandrapur AITC Tajmul Hossain 1,22,527 60.31 BJP Matibur Rahaman 45,054 22.18 77,473
47 Malatipur AITC Abdur Rahim Boxi 1,26,157 68.02 BJP Mousumi Das 34,208 18.44 91,949
48 Ratua AITC Samar Mukherjee 1,30,674 59.63 BJP Abhishek Singhania 55,024 25.11 75,650
49 Manikchak AITC Sabitri Mitra 1,10,234 53.26 BJP Gour Chandra Mandal 76,356 36.89 33,878
50 Maldaha BJP Gopal Chandra Saha 93,998 45.23 AITC Ujjwal Kumar Chowdhury 77,942 37.75 15,456
51 English Bazar BJP Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury 1,07,755 49.96 AITC Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury 87,656 40.64 20,099
52 Mothabari AITC Yeasmin Sabina 97,397 59.70 BJP Shyamchand Ghosh 40,824 25.02 56,573
53 Sujapur AITC Md. Abdul Ghani 1,52,445 73.44 INC Isha Khan Choudhury 22,282 10.73 1,30,163
54 Baisnabnagar AITC Chandana Sarkar 83,061 39.81 BJP Swadhin Kumar Sarkar 80,590 38.62 2,471
Murshidabad district
55 Farakka AITC Manirul Islam 1,02,319 54.89 BJP Hemanta Ghosh 42,374 22.73 59,945
56 Samserganj[j][288][289][292] AITC Amirul Islam 96,417 51.13 INC Zaidur Rahaman 70,038 37.14 26,379
57 Suti AITC Emani Biswas 1,27,351 58.87 BJP Koushik Das 56,650 26.19 70,701
58 Jangipur[j][290][291][292] AITC Jakir Hossain 1,36,444 68.82 BJP Sujit Das 43,964 22.17 92,480
59 Raghunathganj AITC Akhruzzaman 1,26,834 66.59 BJP Golam Modaswer 28,521 14.97 98,313
60 Sagardighi AITC Subrata Saha 95,189 50.95 BJP Mafuja Khatun 44,983 24.08 50,206
61 Lalgola AITC Mohammad Ali 1,07,860 56.64 INC Abu Hena 47,153 24.76 60,707
62 Bhagabangola AITC Idris Ali 1,53,795 68.05 CPI(M) Md Kamal Hossain 47,787 21.15 1,06,008
63 Raninagar AITC Abdul Soumik Hossain 1,34,957 60.79 INC Firoza Begam 55,255 24.89 79,702
64 Murshidabad BJP Gouri Shankar Ghosh 95,967 41.86 AITC Shaoni Singha Roy 93,476 40.78 2,491
65 Nabagram (SC) AITC Kanai Chandra Mondal 1,00,455 48.18 BJP Mohan Halder 64,922 31.14 35,533
66 Khargram (SC) AITC Ashis Marjit 93,255 50.15 BJP Aditya Moulik 60,682 32.64 32,573
67 Burwan (SC) AITC Jiban Krishna Saha 81,890 46.32 BJP Amiya Kumar Das 79,141 44.76 2,749
68 Kandi AITC Apurba Sarkar 95,399 51.16 BJP Goutam Roy 57,319 30.74 38,080
69 Bharatpur AITC Humayun Kabir 96,226 50.90 BJP Iman Kalyan Mukherjee 53,143 28.11 43,083
70 Rejinagar AITC Rabiul Alam Chowdhury 1,18,494 56.31 BJP Arabinda Biswas 50,226 23.87 68,268
71 Beldanga AITC SK Hasanuzzaman 1,12,862 55.19 BJP Sumit Ghosh 59,030 28.86 53,832
72 Baharampur BJP Subrata Maitra 89,340 45.21 AITC Naru Gopal Mukherjee 62,488 31.62 26,852
73 Hariharpara AITC Niamot Sheikh 1,02,660 47.51 INC Mir Alamgir 88,594 41.00 14,066
74 Naoda AITC Sahina Momtaz Khan 1,17,684 58.16 BJP Anupam Mandal 43,531 21.51 74,153
75 Domkal AITC Jafikul Islam 1,27,671 56.45 CPI(M) Md Mostafizur Rahaman 80,442 35.57 47,229
76 Jalangi AITC Abdur Razzak 1,23,840 55.74 CPI(M) Saiful Islam Molla 44,564 20.06 79,276
Nadia district
77 Karimpur AITC Bimlendu Sinha Roy 1,10,911 50.07 BJP Samarendra Nath Ghosh 87,336 39.43 23,575
78 Tehatta AITC Tapas Kumar Saha 97,848 44.86 BJP Ashutosh Paul 90,933 41.69 6,915
79 Palashipara AITC Manik Bhattacharya 1,10,274 54.22 BJP Bibhash Chandra Mandal 58,938 28.98 51,336
80 Kaliganj AITC Nasiruddin Ahamed 1,11,696 53.35 BJP Abhijit Ghosh 64,709 30.91 46,987
81 Nakashipara AITC Kallol Khan 1,04,812 50.01 BJP Santanu Dey 83,541 39.86 21,271
82 Chapra AITC Rukbanur Rahman 73,866 34.65 IND Jeber Sekh 61,748 28.97 12,118
83 Krishnanagar Uttar BJP Mukul Roy 1,09,357 54.19 AITC Koushani Mukherjee 74,268 36.80 35,089
84 Nabadwip AITC Pundarikakshya Saha 1,02,170 48.52 BJP Sidhartha Shankar Naskar 83,599 39.70 18,571
85 Krishnanagar Dakshin AITC Ujjal Biswas 91,738 46.88 BJP Mahadev Sarkar 82,433 42.13 9,305
86 Santipur BJP Jagannath Sarkar 1,09,722 49.94 AITC Ajoy Dey 93,844 42.72 15,878
87 Ranaghat Uttar Paschim BJP Parthasarathi Chatterjee 1,13,637 50.91 AITC Sankar Singha 90,509 40.55 23,128
88 Krishnaganj (SC) BJP Ashis Kumar Biswas 1,17,668 50.73 AITC Tapas Mandal 96,391 41.56 21,277
89 Ranaghat Uttar Purba (SC) BJP Ashim Biswas 1,16,786 54.39 AITC Samir Kumar Poddar 85,004 39.59 31,782
90 Ranaghat Dakshin (SC) BJP Mukut Mani Adhikari 1,19,260 49.34 AITC Barnali Dey Roy 1,02,745 42.51 16,515
91 Chakdaha BJP Bankim Chandra Ghosh 99,368 46.86 AITC Subhankar Singha 87,688 41.35 11,680
92 Kalyani (SC) BJP Ambika Roy 97,026 44.04 AITC Aniruddha Biswas 94,820 43.03 2,206
93 Haringhata (SC) BJP Asim Kumar Sarkar 97,666 46.31 AITC Nilima Nag 82,466 39.11 15,200
North 24 Parganas district
94 Bagda (SC) BJP Biswajit Das 1,08,111 49.41 AITC Paritosh Kumar Saha 98,319 44.94 9,792
95 Bangaon Uttar (SC) BJP Ashok Kirtania 97,761 47.65 AITC Shyamal Roy 87,273 42.54 10,488
96 Bangaon Dakshin (SC) BJP Swapan Majumder 97,828 47.07 AITC Alo Rani Sarkar 95,824 46.11 2,004
97 Gaighata (SC) BJP Subrata Thakur 1,00,808 47.27 AITC Narottam Biswas 91,230 42.78 9,578
98 Swarupnagar (SC) AITC Bina Mondal 99,784 47.11 BJP Brindaban Sarkar 64,984 30.68 34,800
99 Baduria AITC Abdur Rahim Quazi 109,701 51.53 BJP Sukalyan Baidya 53,257 25.02 56,444
100 Habra AITC Jyotipriya Mallick 90,533 44.34 BJP Biswajit Sinha 86,692 42.46 3,841
101 Ashoknagar AITC Narayan Goswami 93,587 43.18 BJP Tanuja Chakraborty 70,055 32.32 23,532
102 Amdanga AITC Rafiqur Rahaman 88,935 42.00 BJP Joydev Manna 63,455 29.97 25,480
103 Bijpur AITC Subodh Adhikary 66,625 47.90 BJP Subhranshu Roy 53,278 38.30 13,347
104 Naihati AITC Partha Bhowmick 77,753 49.69 BJP Phalguni Patra 58,898 37.64 18,855
105 Bhatpara BJP Pawan Kumar Singh 57,244 53.40 AITC Jitendra Shaw 43,557 40.63 13,687
106 Jagatdal AITC Somenath Shyam Ichini 87,030 48.01 BJP Arindam Bhattacharya 68,666 37.88 18,364
107 Noapara[300] AITC Manju Basu 94,203 48.9 BJP Sunil Singh 67,493 35.04 26,710
108 Barrackpur AITC Raj Chakraborty 68,887 46.47 BJP Chandramani Shukla 59,665 40.25 9,222
109 Khardaha[301] AITC Kajal Sinha 89,807 49.04 BJP Silbhadra Datta 61,667 33.67 28,140
110 Dum Dum Uttar[302] AITC Chandrima Bhattacharya 95,465 44.79 BJP Archana Majumdar 66,966 31.42 28,499
111 Panihati AITC Nirmal Ghosh 86,495 49.61 BJP Sanmoy Bandyopadhyay 61,318 35.17 25,177
112 Kamarhati AITC Madan Mitra 73,845 51.17 BJP Anindya Banerjee 38,437 26.64 35,408
113 Baranagar AITC Tapas Roy 85,615 53.42 BJP Parno Mitra 50,468 31.49 35,147
114 Dum Dum AITC Bratya Basu 87,999 47.48 BJP Bimalshankar Nanda 61,368 33.06 26,731
115 Rajarhat New Town AITC Tapash Chatterjee 1,27,374 54.22 BJP Bhaskar Roy 70,942 30.2 56,432
116 Bidhannagar AITC Sujit Bose 75,912 46.85 BJP Sabyasachi Dutta 67,915 41.91 7,997
117 Rajarhat Gopalpur AITC Aditi Munshi 87,650 49.04 BJP Samik Bhattacharya 62,354 34.89 25,296
118 Madhyamgram AITC Rathin Ghosh 1,12,741 48.93 BJP Rajasree Rajbanshi 64,615 28.04 48,126
119 Barasat AITC Chiranjeet Chakraborty 1,04,431 46.27 BJP Sankar Chatterjee 80,648 35.73 23,783
120 Deganga AITC Rahima Mondal 1,00,105 46.7 ISF Karim Ali 67,568 31.52 32,537
121 Haroa AITC Islam Sk Nurul (Haji) 1,30,398 57.34 ISF Kutubuddin Fathe 49,420 21.73 80,978
122 Minakhan (SC) AITC Usha Rani Mondal 1,09,818 51.72 BJP Jayanta Mondal 53,988 25.42 55,830
123 Sandeshkhali (ST) AITC Sukumar Mahata 1,12,450 54.64 BJP Bhaskar Sardar 72,765 35.36 39,685
124 Basirhat Dakshin AITC Saptarshi Banerjee 1,15,873 49.15 BJP Tarak Nath Ghosh 91,405 38.77 24,468
125 Basirhat Uttar AITC Rafikul Islam Mondal 1,37,216 57.55 ISF Md. Baijid Amin 47,865 20.08 89,351
126 Hingalganj (SC) AITC Debes Mandal 1,04,706 53.78 BJP Nemai Das 79,790 40.98 24,916
South 24 Parganas district
127 Gosaba (SC) AITC Jayanta Naskar 1,05,723 53.99 BJP Barun Pramanik (Chitta) 82,014 41.88 23,709
128 Basanti (SC) AITC Shyamal Mondal 1,11,453 52.1 BJP Ramesh Majhi 60,811 28.43 50,642
129 Kultali (SC) AITC Ganesh Chandra Mondal 1,17,238 51.57 BJP Mintu Halder 70,061 30.82 47,177
130 Patharpratima AITC Samir Kumar Jana 1,20,181 51.85 BJP Asit Kumar Haldar 98,047 42.3 22,134
131 Kakdwip AITC Manturam Pakhira 1,14,493 52.14 BJP Dipankar Jana 89,191 40.62 25,302
132 Sagar AITC Bankim Chandra Hazra 1,29,000 53.96 BJP Kamila Bikash 99,154 41.48 29,846
133 Kulpi AITC Jogaranjan Halder 96,577 50.01 BJP Pranab Kumar Mallik 62,759 32.5 33,818
134 Raidighi AITC Aloke Jaldata 1,15,707 48.47 BJP Santanu Bapuli 80,139 33.57 35,568
135 Mandirbazar (SC) AITC Joydeb Halder 95,834 48.04 BJP Dilip Kumar Jatua 72,342 36.26 23,492
136 Jaynagar (SC) AITC Biswanath Das 1,04,952 51.85 BJP Rabin Sardar 66,269 32.74 38,683
137 Baruipur Purba (SC) AITC Bivas Sardar (Vobo) 1,23,243 54.75 BJP Chandan Mondal 73,602 32.7 49,641
138 Canning Paschim (SC) AITC Paresh Ram Das 1,11,059 50.86 BJP Arnab Roy 75,816 34.72 35,243
139 Canning Purba AITC Saokat Molla 1,22,301 52.54 ISF Gazi Shahabuddin Siraji 69,294 29.77 53,007
140 Baruipur Paschim AITC Biman Banerjee 1,21,006 57.27 BJP Debopam Chattopadhyaya (Babu) 59,096 27.97 61,910
141 Magrahat Purba (SC) AITC Namita Saha 1,10,945 53.82 BJP Chandan Kumar Naskar 56,866 27.58 54,079
142 Magrahat Paschim AITC Gias Uddin Molla 97,006 49.93 BJP Dhurjati Saha (Manas) 50,065 25.77 46,941
143 Diamond Harbour AITC Pannalal Halder 98,478 43.69 BJP Dipak Kumar Halder 81,482 36.15 16996
144 Falta AITC Sankar Kumar Naskar 1,17,179 56.35 BJP Bidhan Parui 76,405 36.75 40,774
145 Satgachia AITC Mohan Chandra Naskar 1,18,635 50.37 BJP Chandan Pal 95,317 40.47 23,318
146 Bishnupur (South 24 Parganas) (SC) AITC Dilip Mondal 1,36,509 57.46 BJP Agniswar Naskar 77,677 32.7 58,832
147 Sonarpur Dakshin AITC Arundhuti Maitra (Lovely) 1,09,222 46.92 BJP Anjana Basu 83,041 35.67 26,181
148 Bhangar[303] ISF Nawsad Siddique 1,09,237 45.1 AITC Karim Rezaul 83,086 34.31 26,151
149 Kasba AITC Javed Ahmed Khan 1,21,372 54.39 BJP Indranil Khan 57,750 25.88 63,622
150 Jadavpur AITC Debabrata Majumdar (Malay) 98,100 45.54 CPI(M) Sujan Chakraborty 59,231 27.5 38,869
151 Sonarpur Uttar AITC Firdousi Begum 1,19,957 49.88 BJP Ranjan Baidya 83,867 34.87 36,090
152 Tollygunge AITC Aroop Biswas 1,01,440 51.4 BJP Babul Supriyo 51,360 26.02 50,080
153 Behala Purba AITC Ratna Chatterjee 1,10,968 50.01 BJP Payel Sarkar 73,540 33.15 37,428
154 Behala Paschim AITC Partha Chatterjee 1,14,778 49.51 BJP Srabanti Chatterjee 63,894 27.56 50,884
155 Maheshtala AITC Dulal Chandra Das 1,24,008 56.38 BJP Umesh Das 66,059 30.03 57,949
156 Budge Budge AITC Ashok Kumar Deb 1,22,357 56.41 BJP Tarun Kumar Adak 77,643 35.8 44,714
157 Metiaburuz AITC Abdul Khaleque Molla 1,51,066 76.85 BJP Ramjit Prasad 31,462 16 1,19,604
Kolkata district
158 Kolkata Port AITC Firhad Hakim 1,05,543 69.23 BJP Awadh Kishore Gupta 36,989 24.26 68,554
159 Bhabanipur AITC Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay 73,505 57.71 BJP Rudranil Ghosh 44,786 35.16 28,719
160 Rashbehari AITC Debasish Kumar 65,704 52.79 BJP Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Subrata Saha 44,290 35.59 21,414
161 Ballygunge AITC Subrata Mukherjee 1,06,585 70.6 BJP Lokenath Chatterjee 31,226 20.68 75,359
162 Chowrangee AITC Nayna Bandyopadhyay 70,101 62.87 BJP Devdutta Maji 24,757 22.2 45,344
163 Entally AITC Swarna Kamal Saha 1,01,709 64.83 BJP Priyanka Tibrewal 43,452 27.7 58,257
164 Beleghata AITC Paresh Paul 1,03,182 65.1 BJP Kashinath Biswas 36,042 22.74 67,140
165 Jorasanko AITC Vivek Gupta 52,123 52.67 BJP Meena Devi Purohit 39,380 39.8 12,743
166 Shyampukur AITC Shashi Panja 55,785 54.18 BJP Sandipan Biswas 33,265 32.31 22,520
167 Maniktala AITC Sadhan Pande 67,577 50.82 BJP Kalyan Chaubey 47,339 35.6 20,238
168 Kashipur-Belgachia AITC Atin Ghosh 76,182 56.48 BJP Sibaji Sinha Roy 40,792 30.24 35,390
Howrah district
169 Bally AITC Rana Chatterjee 53,347 42.38 BJP Baishali Dalmiya 47,110 37.43 6,237
170 Howrah Uttar AITC Gautam Chowdhuri 71,575 47.81 BJP Umesh Rai 66,053 44.12 5,522
171 Howrah Madhya AITC Arup Roy 1,11,554 57.16 BJP Sanjay Singh 65,007 33.31 46,547
172 Shibpur AITC Manoj Tiwary 92,372 50.69 BJP Rathin Chakrabarty 59,769 32.8 32,603
173 Howrah Dakshin AITC Nandita Chowdhury 1,16,839 53.85 BJP Rantidev Sengupta 66,270 30.55 50,569
174 Sankrail (SC) AITC Priya Paul 1,11,888 50.37 BJP Probhakar Pandit 71,461 32.17 40,427
175 Panchla AITC Gulsan Mullick 1,04,572 48.19 BJP Mohit Lal Ghanti 71,821 33.1 32,751
176 Uluberia Purba AITC Bidesh Ranjan Bose 86,526 44.83 BJP Pratyush Mandal 69,400 35.95 17,126
177 Uluberia Uttar (SC) AITC Nirmal Maji 91,501 49.25 BJP Chiran Bera 70,498 37.95 21,003
178 Uluberia Dakshin AITC Pulak Roy 1,01,880 50.37 BJP Papia Dey (Adhikary) 73,442 36.31 28,438
179 Shyampur AITC Kalipada Mandal 1,14,804 51.74 BJP Tanusree Chakraborty 83,293 37.54 31,511
180 Bagnan AITC Arunava Sen (Raja) 1,06,042 53.04 BJP Anupam Mallik 75,922 37.97 30,120
181 Amta AITC Sukanta Kumar Paul 1,02,445 49.06 BJP Debtanu Bhattacharya 76,240 36.51 26,205
182 Udaynarayanpur AITC Samir Kumar Panja 1,01,510 51.21 BJP Sumit Ranjan Karar 87,512 44.15 13,998
183 Jagatballavpur AITC Sitanath Ghosh 1,16,562 49.45 BJP Anupam Ghosh 87,366 37.06 29196
184 Domjur AITC Kalyan Ghosh 1,30,499 52 BJP Rajib Banerjee 87,879 35.01 42620
Hooghly district
185 Uttarpara AITC Kanchan Mullick 93,878 46.96 BJP Prabir Kumar Ghosal 57,889 28.96 35,989
186 Sreerampur AITC Sudipto Roy 93,021 49.46 BJP Kabir Shankar Bose 69,588 37 23,433
187 Champdani AITC Arindam Guin (Bubai) 1,00,972 50.2 BJP Dilip Singh 70,894 35.25 30,078
188 Singur AITC Becharam Manna 1,01,077 48.15 BJP Rabindranath Bhattacharya 75,154 35.8 25,923
189 Chandannagar AITC Indranil Sen 86,778 47.63 BJP Deepanjan Kumar Guha 55,749 30.6 31,029
190 Chunchura AITC Asit Mazumder (Tapan) 1,17,104 45.97 BJP Locket Chatterjee 98,687 38.74 18,417
191 Balagarh (SC) AITC Manoranjan Byapari 1,00,364 45.63 BJP Subhas Chandra Haldar 94,580 43 5,784
192 Pandua AITC Ratna De Nag 1,02,874 45.99 BJP Partha Sharma 71,016 31.75 31,858
193 Saptagram AITC Tapan Dasgupta 93,328 48.56 BJP Debabrata Biswas 83,556 43.48 9,772
194 Chanditala AITC Swati Khandoker 1,03,118 49.79 BJP Yash Dasgupta 61,771 29.83 41,347
195 Jangipara AITC Snehasis Chakraborty 1,01,885 48.42 BJP Debjit Sarkar 83,959 39.9 17,926
196 Haripal AITC Karabi Manna 1,10,215 49.92 BJP Samiran Mitra 87,143 39.47 23,072
197 Dhanekhali (SC) AITC Asima Patra 1,24,776 53.36 BJP Tusar Kumar Majumdar 94,617 40.46 30,159
198 Tarakeswar AITC Ramendu Sinharay 96,698 46.96 BJP Swapan Dasgupta 89,214 43.33 7484
199 Pursurah BJP Biman Ghosh 1,19,334 53.5 AITC Dilip Yadav 91,156 40.86 28,178
200 Arambagh (SC) BJP Madhusudan Bag 1,03,108 46.88 AITC Sujata Mondal 95,936 43.62 7,172
201 Goghat (SC) BJP Biswanath Karak 1,02,227 46.56 AITC Manas Majumdar 98,080 44.67 4,147
202 Khanakul BJP Susanta Ghosh 1,07,403 49.27 AITC Munsi Nazbul Karim 94,519 43.36 12,884
Purba Medinipur district
203 Tamluk AITC Saumen Kumar Mahapatra 1,08,243 45.86 BJP Hare Krishna Bera 1,07,450 45.52 793
204 Panskura Purba AITC Biplab Roy Chowdhury 91,213 45.97 BJP Debabrata Pattanayek 81,553 41.11 9,660
205 Panskura Paschim AITC Phiroja Bibi 1,11,705 47.71 BJP Sintu Senapati 1,02,816 43.91 8,889
206 Moyna BJP Ashoke Dinda 1,08,109 48.17 AITC Sangram Kumar Dolai 1,06,849 47.61 1,260
207 Nandakumar AITC Sukumar De 1,08,181 47.6 BJP Nilanjan Adhikary 1,02,775 45.22 5,406
208 Mahisadal AITC Tilak Kumar Chakraborty 1,01,986 46.49 BJP Biswanath Banerjee 99,600 45.41 2,386
209 Haldia (SC) BJP Tapasi Mondal 1,04,126 47.15 AITC Swapan Naskar 89,118 40.36 15,008
210 Nandigram
[304][1][305][306] 		BJP Suvendu Adhikari 1,10,764 48.49 AITC Mamata Banerjee 1,08,808 47.64 1,956
211 Chandipur AITC Soham Chakraborty 1,09,770 49.82 BJP Pulak Kanti Guria 96,298 43.71 13,472
212 Patashpur AITC Uttam Barik 1,05,299 50.42 BJP Ambujaksha Mahanti 95,305 45.64 9,994
213 Kanthi Uttar BJP Sumita Sinha 1,13,524 49.7 AITC Tarun Kumar Jana 1,04,194 45.62 9,330
214 Bhagabanpur BJP Rabindranath Maity 1,21,480 54.46 AITC Ardhendu Maity 93,931 42.19 27,549
215 Khejuri (SC) BJP Santanu Pramanik 1,10,407 51.93 AITC Partha Pratim Das 92,442 43.48 17,965
216 Kanthi Dakshin BJP Arup Kumar Das 98,477 50.58 AITC Jyotirmoy Kar 88,184 45.3 10,293
217 Ramnagar AITC Akhil Giri 1,12,622 50.72 BJP Swadesh Ranjan Nayak 1,00,105 45.08 12,517
218 Egra AITC Tarun Kumar Maity 1,25,763 52.22 BJP Arup Dash 1,07,272 44.55 18,491
Paschim Medinipur district
219 Dantan AITC Bikram Chandra Pradhan 94,609 48.18 BJP Saktipada Nayak 93,834 47.79 775
Jhargram district
220 Nayagram (ST) AITC Dulal Murmu 99,825 52.52 BJP Bakul Murmu 77,089 40.55 22,736
221 Gopiballavpur AITC Khagendra Nath Mahata 1,02,710 52.34 BJP Sanjit Mahata 79,106 40.31 23,604
222 Jhargram AITC Birbaha Hansda 1,08,044 54.34 BJP Sukhamay Satpathy (Jahar) 70,048 35.23 37,996
Paschim Medinipur district
223 Keshiary (ST) AITC Paresh Murmu 1,06,366 50.01 BJP Sonali Murmu 91,036 42.8 15,330
224 Kharagpur Sadar BJP Hiran Chatterjee 79,607 46.45 AITC Pradip Sarkar 75,836 44.25 3,771
225 Narayangarh AITC Suryakanta Atta 1,00,894 46.33 BJP Ramprasad Giri 98,478 45.23 2,416
226 Sabang AITC Manas Bhunia 1,12,098 47.46 BJP Amulya Maity 1,02,234 43.28 9,864
227 Pingla AITC Ajit Maity 1,12,435 49.17 BJP Antara Bhattacharya 1,05,779 46.26 6,656
228 Kharagpur AITC Dinen Ray 1,09,727 54.85 BJP Tapan Bhuiya 73,497 36.74 36,230
229 Debra AITC Humayun Kabir 95,850 46.79 BJP Bharati Ghosh 84,624 41.31 11,226
230 Daspur AITC Mamata Bhunia 1,14,753 51.58 BJP Prashanth Bera 87,911 39.52 26,842
231 Ghatal BJP Shital Kapat 1,05,812 46.95 AITC Shankar Dolui 1,04,846 46.52 966
232 Chandrakona (SC) AITC Arup Dhara 1,21,846 48.87 BJP Shibram Das 1,10,565 44.35 11,281
233 Garbeta AITC Uttara Singha 94,928 45.71 BJP Madan Ruidas 84,356 40.62 10,572
234 Salboni AITC Srikanta Mahata 1,26,020 50.57 BJP Rajib Kundu 93,376 37.47 32,644
235 Keshpur AITC Siuli Saha 1,16,992 50.81 BJP Pritish Ranjan 96,272 41.82 20,720
236 Medinipur AITC June Malia 1,21,175 50.72 BJP Shamit Dash 96,778 40.51 24,397
Jhargram district
237 Binpur (ST) AITC Debnath Hansda 99,786 53.18 BJP Palan Saren 60,213 32.09 39,573
Purulia district
238 Bandwan (ST) AITC Rajib Lochan Saren 1,12,183 47.07 BJP Parsi Murmu 93,298 39.14 18,885
239 Balarampur BJP Baneswar Mahato 88,803 45.17 AITC Shantiram Mahato 88,530 45.03 273
240 Baghmundi AITC Sushanta Mahato 75,245 36.76 AJSU Ashutosh Mahato 61,510 30.05 13,735
241 Joypur BJP Narahari Mahato 73,713 36.66 INC Phanibhushan Kumar 61,611 30.64 12,102
242 Purulia BJP Sudip Kumar Mukherjee 88,899 43.33 AITC Sujoy Banerjee 82,134 40.12 6,585
243 Manbazar (ST) AITC Sandhyarani Tudu 1,02,169 48.39 BJP Gouri Singh Sardar 86,679 41.05 15,490
244 Kashipur BJP Kamalakanta Hansda 92,061 47.68 AITC Swapan Kumar Beltharia 84,829 43.93 7,240
245 Para (SC) BJP Nadiar Chand Bouri 86,930 45.01 AITC Umapada Bauri 82,986 42.96 3944
246 Raghunathpur (SC) BJP Vivekananda Bauri 94,994 44.59 AITC Bouri Hazari 89,671 42.04 5,323
Bankura district
247 Saltora (SC) BJP Chandana Bauri 91,648 45.28 AITC Santosh Kumar Mondal 87,503 43.23 4,145
248 Chhatna BJP Satyanarayan Mukhopadhyay 90,233 45.84 AITC Subasish Batabyal 83,069 42.20 7,164
249 Ranibandh (ST) AITC Jyotsna Mandi 90,928 43.06 BJP Kshudiram Tudu 86,989 41.19 3,939
250 Raipur (ST) AITC Mrityunjoy Murmu 1,01,043 51.96 BJP Sudhanshu Hansda 81,645 41.98 19,398
251 Taldangra AITC Arup Chakraborty 92,026 45.29 BJP Shyamal Kumar Sarkar 79,649 39.20 12,377
252 Bankura BJP Niladri Sekhar Dana 95,466 43.79 AITC Sayantika Banerjee 93,998 43.12 1,468
253 Barjora AITC Alok Mukherjee 93,290 42.51 BJP Supriti Chatterjee 90,021 41.02 3,269
254 Onda BJP Amarnath Shakha 10,4940 46.48 AITC Arup Kumar Khan 93,389 41.37 11,551
255 Bishnupur (Bankura) BJP Tanmay Ghosh 88,743 46.79 AITC Archita Bid 77,610 40.92 11,133
256 Katulpur (SC) BJP Harakali Protiher 10,6022 47.31 AITC Sangeeta Malik 94,237 42.05 11,785
257 Indas (SC) BJP Nirmal Kumar Dhara 1,04,936 48.04 AITC Runu Mete 97,716 44.73 7,220
258 Sonamukhi (SC) BJP Dibakar Gharami 98,161 47.25 AITC Dr Shyamal Santra 87,273 42.01 10,888
Purba Bardhaman district
259 Khandaghosh (SC) AITC Nabin Chandra Bag 1,04,264 47.85 BJP Bijan Mandal 83,378 38.26 20,886
260 Bardhaman Dakshin AITC Khokan Das 91,015 44.32 BJP Sandip Nandi 82,910 40.38 8,105
261 Raina (SC) AITC Shampa Dhara 1,08,752 47.46 BJP Manik Roy 90,547 39.51 18,205
262 Jamalpur (SC) AITC Alok Kumar Majhi 96,999 46.93 BJP Balaram Bapari 79,028 38.24 17,971
263 Monteswar AITC Siddiqullah Chowdhury 1,05,460 50.45 BJP Saikat Panja 73,655 35.24 31,805
264 Kalna (SC) AITC Deboprasad Bag (Poltu) 96,073 45.98 BJP Biswajit Kundu 88,595 42.4 7,478
265 Memari AITC Madhusudan Bhattacharya 1,04,851 47.92 BJP Bhismadeb Bhattacharya 81,773 37.37 23,078
266 Bardhaman Uttar (SC) AITC Nisith Kumar Malik 1,11,211 45.97 BJP Radha Kanta Roy 93,943 38.83 17,268
267 Bhatar AITC Mangobinda Adhikari 1,08,028 50.44 BJP Mahendranath Kowar 76,287 35.62 31,741
268 Purbasthali Dakshin AITC Swapan Debnath 1,05,698 49.08 BJP Rajib Kumar Bhowmick 88,288 41 17,410
269 Purbasthali Uttar AITC Tapan Chatterjee 92,421 43.52 BJP Gobardhan Das 85,715 40.37 6,706
270 Katwa AITC Rabindranath Chatterjee 1,07,894 48.07 BJP Shyama Majumdar 98,739 43.99 9,155
271 Ketugram AITC Sekh Sahonawez 1,00,226 46.55 BJP Anadi Ghosh (Mathura) 87,543 40.66 12,683
272 Mangalkot AITC Apurba Chowdhury (Achal) 1,07,596 49.51 BJP Rana Protap Goswami 85,259 39.23 22,337
273 Ausgram (SC) AITC Abhedananda Thander 1,00,392 46.25 BJP Kalita Maji 88,577 40.8 11,815
274 Galsi (SC) AITC Nepal Ghorui 1,09,504 49.21 BJP Bikash Biswas 90,242 40.55 19,262
Paschim Bardhaman district
275 Pandabeswar AITC Narendranath Chakraborty 73,922 44.99 BJP Jitendra Kumar Tewari 70,119 42.68 3,803
276 Durgapur Purba AITC Pradip Mazumdar 79,303 41.16 BJP Colonel Diptansu Chaudhury 75,557 39.21 3,746
277 Durgapur Paschim BJP Lakshman Chandra Ghorui 91,186 46.31 AITC Biswanath Parial 76,522 38.86 14,664
278 Raniganj AITC Tapas Banerjee 78,164 42.90 BJP Bijan Mukherjee 74,608 40.95 3,556
279 Jamuria AITC Hareram Singh 71,002 42.59 BJP Tapas Kumar Roy 62,951 37.76 8,051
280 Asansol Dakshin BJP Agnimitra Paul 87,881 45.13 AITC Sayani Ghosh 83,394 42.82 4,487
281 Asansol Uttar AITC Moloy Ghatak 1,00,931 52.32 BJP Krishnendu Mukherjee 79,821 41.38 21,110
282 Kulti BJP Ajay Kumar Poddar 81,112 46.41 AITC Ujjal Chatterjee 80,433 46.02 679
283 Barabani AITC Bidhan Upadhyay 88,430 52.26 BJP Arijit Roy 64,973 38.40 23,457
Birbhum district
284 Dubrajpur (SC) BJP Anup Kumar Saha 98,083 47.94 AITC Debabrata Saha 94,220 46.05 3,863
285 Suri AITC Bikash Roychoudhury 1,05,871 48.43 BJP Jagannath Chattopadhyay 98,551 45.08 7,320
286 Bolpur AITC Chandranath Sinha 1,16,443 50.57 BJP Anirban Ganguly 94,163 40.89 22,280
287 Nanoor (SC) AITC Bidhan Chandra Majhi 1,12,116 47.64 BJP Tarakeswar Saha 1,05,446 44.81 6,670
288 Labpur AITC Abhijit Sinha (Rana) 1,08,423 51.14 BJP Biswajit Mondal 90,448 42.66 17,975
289 Sainthia (SC) AITC Nilabati Saha 1,10,572 49.84 BJP Piya Saha 95,329 42.97 15,243
290 Mayureswar AITC Abhijit Roy 1,00,425 50.36 BJP Shyamapada Mondal 88,350 44.3 12,075
291 Rampurhat AITC Asish Banerjee 1,03,276 47.52 BJP Subhasis Choudhury (Khokan) 94,804 43.62 8,472
292 Hansan AITC Asok Kumar Chattopadhyay 1,08,289 51.42 BJP Nikhil Banerjee 57,676 27.39 50,613
293 Nalhati AITC Rajendra Prasad Singh (Raju Singh) 1,17,438 56.54 BJP Tapas Kumar Yadav (Ananda Yadav) 60,533 29.15 56,905
294 Murarai AITC Dr Mosarraf Hossain 1,46,496 67.23 BJP Debasish Roy 48,250 22.14 98,246

Controversies

Communist Party of India (Marxist) supporters and leaders accused No Vote To BJP campaign and CPIML Liberation of leading to the victory of All India Trinamool Congress. Relations between CPIM and CPIML Liberation weakened after 2021 West Bengal Legislative Election.[307][308]

No Vote To BJP campaign

No Vote To BJP was a non-partisan, Anti-BJP political campaign in West Bengal. The campaign motto was We requested to all peoples of the West Bengal, vote for anyone in the election, but not vote for the BJP on the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election..[309][310][311][312][313]

Nandigram controversy

On 18 January Mamata Banerjee announced at a rally in Nandigram that she would contest the upcoming assembly elections from Nandigram. Hours later, Suvendu Adhikari said he would defeat the CM by a margin of at least 50,000 votes or quit politics.[314][315]

On the eve of polling in Nandigram, the ECI ordered the transfer of the sub-divisional police officer of Haldia and the circle inspector of Mahishadal in Purba Medinipur district to non-election assignments[316] and imposed Section 144 in that constituency.[317] A day after the polling, stray clashes took place between workers of the TMC and the BJP in some parts of Nandigram.[318]

The votes were counted on 2 May. All eyes were set on the updates of high-voltage Nandigram constituency. 17 rounds of counting was to be done before declaring the winner. Mamata Banerjee was trailing in initial rounds. The EC informed that announcement of results for Nandigram would be delayed because of problem in server.[319] In the 16th round, when the counting of votes in Gokulnagar panchayat area started, Mamata fell behind.[320] After the 16th round, the counting of 17th round was delayed by an hour. Postal ballots were being counted at that time. At the end of the seventeenth round, it was announced that Mamata Banerjee had won by a margin of 1,200 (or 3,717) votes. Though later, it was declared that Suvendu had defeated (his) former party leader by approximately 1,956 votes.[304][1][305][306] Mamata banerjee continued to claim that she won Nandigram, Security was beefed up in the vicinity of the Haldia counting centre amid fears of unrest.

Mamata Banerjee alleged that the returning officer of Nandigram constituency was threatened and the two observers sitting inside the counting centre were very biased.[321][322][323]

The ECI wrote a letter to the West Bengal chief secretary and directed them to take all appropriate measures to keep a strict watch and regularly monitor the security provided to the returning officer in Nandigram.

Since Adhikari was declared winner, TMC workers protested outside the counting centre. Central Forces protected Adhikari's car while before it left the area. TMC workers alleged that the counting was stopped for three hours, the result was overturned after a power outage, and their agent was assaulted and thrown out from the counting centre by central forces.[324]

On 14 July, the High Court issued a notice to Adhikari, the ECI, the state electoral officer, and the returning officer with a direction to keep all election-related records intact until the case was heard on 12 August.[325][326] Adhikari went to the Supreme Court seeking transfer of Banerjee's election petition case outside the state.[327]

On 12 August, Adhikari's lawyers submitted before the court of Justice Sarkar that the legislator has approached the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the case from West Bengal. In keeping with the respondent's prayer, Justice Sarkar adjourned the hearing to 15 November.[328][329] On that date, Adhikari filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court seeking adjournment of the case. The High Court asked him to file a written statement explaining the reason for his no-confidence in the High Court by 29 November and it was decided that the next hearing would be held on 1 December.[330][331]

Reactions and analysis

For the first time since the creation of the state through division of Bengal Presidency, the state legislative assembly does not have any members from the INC or Left Front, who dominated and shaped the politics of the state until 1998 when the TMC was founded and overtook the INC as the main opposition party in the state.

Opinion polls and exit polls predicted a tight race between the TMC and BJP, and that TMC would win around 150 seats, BJP 140, with the remaining for Morcha. TMC won over 200 seats, while BJP overall performed poorly.[332] Although it was the best ever performance of the state BJP in terms of both seats (before 2016, it never had more than 1 seat in the state Legislative assembly) & voteshare (at the height of the Ram mandir agitation, BJP managed to win 11.34% of votes in the 1991 election), it wasn't as phenomenal as it was in 2019.

BJP's vote share fell from 40% in the 2019 elections to 38%. Reasons given were:

  • By fielding candidates who switched from TMC to BJP after the results of the 2019 general elections or months before the elections began, the party leadership angered the party cadres at grassroots level who have been associated with the party since the 2014 general elections and have been actively demanding that the party remove those same people from power,[333] resulting in the defeat of 142 TMC turncoats who had been fielded by BJP as candidates in this election.[334] The defeat of sitting TMC MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharjee, who had joined BJP on 8 March was significant because he lost in Singur, where people had started considering the 2006 anti-land acquisition movement led by Mamata Banerjee to be a historic blunder[335] due to a lack of jobs in the region and had voted for BJP in the 2019 elections in the hopes of industrialisation.[336][337][338] Similarly Rajib Banerjee, who won the Domjur seat by receiving more than 100,000 votes in the previous assembly election, lost by a margin of more than 42,000 votes because he was unable to consolidate the support of the local cadres from either TMC or BJP towards himself.[339]
  • Derogatory comments made towards Mamata Banerjee by BJP leaders, notably Modi taunting her by calling her out as Didi, O Didi from political rallies in Howrah and Barasat, Adhikari referring to her as Begum and Ghosh calling her out as haramjada ('harem-born child' in Bangla[k])[340] & his derogatory comments on Mamata Banerjee's injury,[341] eight months after a Dalit woman was gangraped and strangled to death by four upper-caste men in Uttar Pradesh and BJP leaders there openly supported of the perpetrators were not viewed positively by Bengali women, who saw the BJP leaders trying to import the culture of misogyny & toxic masculinity generally associated with the Hindi belt.[342] A large number of Bengali women (constituting 49% of the electorate) did not vote for BJP in spite of electoral promises like making education of females in the state free of cost from kindergarten to post-graduate level.[343]
  • Attempts made by BJP leaders to convert the tribal population into Hinduism[l] were widely unpopular, especially in the tribal-dominated Medinipur division[344] As a result, tribal votes were divided between BJP and TMC as TMC regained back the support of tribal communities in the Jhargram, Paschim Medinipur and Malda districts while BJP continued to retain its tribal votes in Purulia, Bankura, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar.
  • An increase in petrol, diesel and LPG prices along with spike in cases related to the COVID-19 pandemic during the elections and BJP's response to it, most notably state BJP president Dilip Ghosh advocating consumption of cow urine (considered sacred to Hindu society due to sacredness of the cow in Hinduism) over vaccination,[345] advocating extraction of gold allegedly found in the milk of zebu cattle native to the region as a means to overcome econmic recession caused by the pandemic[346] & promoting anti-intellectualism by labelling those intellectuals who criticised his promotion of pseudo-science as 'Hinduphobhic', 'alcohol-addicts' & 'dog meat eaters' (a racial slur used in India by Hindus against the Han Chinese & non-Hindu hill tribes of Northeast India) made the party unpopular to the Bengali middle-class.[347]
  • To compensate for the lack of organisational strength in the state & prevent outbreak of factionalism in the state unit between those who have connections with the RSS & have been associated with the party since the days of the Ram-mandir agitation and those who defected from other parties & have no RSS background, BJP depended heavily on non-Bengali leaders from the Hindi belt to campaign for the party. 52 Union Cabinet ministers and 17 senior BJP leaders, which included Yogi Adityanath,[348] Shivraj Singh Chauhan,[349] Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Prahlad Patel, Sanjeev Balyan, Arjun Munda, Mansukh L. Mandaviya, Keshav Prasad Maurya, Narottam Mishra,[350] Smriti Irani, Rajnath Singh, Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP party president J. P. Nadda, and secretary-in-charge of the state unit Kailash Vijayvargiya were sent to campaign in the state. Modi held 23 rallies, while Amit Shah held 79 in the state. The over-dependence of Hindi-speaking leaders who did not speak Bangla created a communication gap between the party and the electorate, who viewed their Bengali identity to be losing ground in the state to the aggressive promotion of culture from the Hindi belt by the BJP in the name of promoting Hindu unity.[351]
  • Although the Matua community continued to vote in favour of BJP, they did not vote in unison as they did in the 2019 elections. Fears centering around the National Register of Citizens,[352] frustration due to delay in implementation of the CAA, and Mamata Banerjee's attempts to regain back the support of the Matua community by allotting money for community-specific development of Namasudras[353] and declaring the birthday of Harichand Thakur, founder of the Matua movement, as a state government holiday led to the division of Matua votes between the BJP and TMC to some extent,[354] which affected the party in Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts as BJP won 28 Matua-dominated seats and TMC retained 21 Matua-dominated seats.

The TMC increased its vote share from 43% in 2019 elections to 48% in the election. Reasons given were:

  • After the debacle in the 2019 elections, Mamata Banerjee ordered her party to return the "cut-money" (money collected by extorting and accepting bribes from common people, in order to "allow" them to access government facilities)[355] in an attempt to distance herself from corruption perpetrated by her cadres & maintain her clean image.
  • To tone down the allegations of Muslim appeasement made against her, Mamata Banerjee declared an allowance for Hindu priests,[356] providing 50,000 INR to each Durga Puja committee in the state,[357] emphasising on her Bengali Brahmin background and reciting shlokas from the Devi Mahatmya in political rallies.[358]
  • The Didi Ke Bolo campaign launched by Prashant Kishor helped the electorate directly communicate with Mamata Banerjee and was widely popular in the state.[359] The programs aimed to rebrand the public image of Mamata Banerjee from an arrogant pro-Muslim streetfighter prone to outbursts of anger to a down-to-earth leader who represents Bengali cultural values on a national level.[360][361]
  • To curb the influence of party cadres acting as middlemen between common people and government schemes, Mamata Banerjee launched government programs like Duare Sarkar (transl. "Government at your doorstep")[362] and Paraye Paraye Somadhan (transl. "Solution at your neighbourhood")[363] which aimed to directly deliver welfare schemes run by the state government to the public, and were well received.[364]
  • TMC countered BJP's campaign of polarisation on religious grounds based on aggressive propagation of Hindutva by labelling the BJP as a party of non-Bengalis who were importing an alien culture in the state in their attempts of achieving cultural homogenization under the name of Hindu unity and portraying Mamata Banerjee as the defendant of Bengali identity in the face of Hindutva through its official election slogan "Bangla nijer meyekei chay" (transl. "Bengal wants its own daughter")[365]
  • Mamata Banerjee's decision to contest the elections only from Nandigram instead of her home-turf Bhabanipur (from where she had been elected MLA twice & MP for South Kolkata 7 times) motivated her party cadres demoralised by the rise of BJP in 2019 and the ensuing defection of many top TMC leaders, to dedicate themselves entirely in preventing the BJP from coming into power in the state.[366] Modi, Shah, and an entire hoard of high-profile leaders of national politics campaigned to remove Mamata Banerjee from power with the ECI acting biasedly in favour of the BJP[367] and that she was campaigning from a wheelchair, solidified Mamata Banerjee's image in public perception as a fighter who is unwilling to give up without a fight.[342] The TMC utilised this indomitable fighter spirit of her through its unofficial election anthem[368] "Khela Hobe" (transl. "The game is on"), which was later gave rise to the slogan "Bhanga Paye Khela Hobe" (transl. "The game will be played even with a fractured leg").[369]
  • Welfare schemes implemented by Mamata Banerjee like Kanyashree were already popular among the masses. They were combined by other populist schemes in the list of electoral promises, most notably Lakshmir Bhandar (basic income support for unemployed women).[370]
  • BJP's endorsement of the killing of Muslims in the Sitalkuchi firing incident left the Bengali Muslim community of the state (who constitute 30% of the electorate) fearful for their existence and security in the scenario of a BJP-ruled West Bengal, and they voted unitedly for the TMC in the election, especially in the Muslim-majority Malda division, where the Muslim votes until then was traditionally divided between the INC & CPI(M).[342]

The combined vote share of INC and Left Front fell from 11% in the 2019 general elections to 8% in this elections. Reasons given were:

  • Confusion regarding the party's policy was an important factor. Central INC leaders like Rahul Gandhi refrained from campaigning against Mamata Banerjee as the party enjoyed cooperation with the TMC at a national level, but at the state level PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury refused to cooperate with TMC, and INC leaders found it difficult to justfy their alliance with the Left Front in West Bengal while opposing the Left Front in Kerala at the same time.[371] The Left Front was divided over whether to consider BJP to be a greater threat than the TMC, and decided to focus more on opposing TMC than the BJP.[372] This strategy backfired on the Left Front as the TMC portrayed itself as the party that could withstand BJP in the state, and the Left Front was viewed as a "vote-cutter"[373] that divided the anti-BJP votes to BJP's advantage. A group of voters who had voted for the Left Front in the 2019 general elections, under influence of the non-partisan No Vote to BJP campaign[374][375][376][310][377][313] voted for the TMC to prevent BJP from coming into power.
  • To attract the anti-TMC and anti-BJP votes towards itself, the Sanyukta Morcha tried to portray BJP and TMC to be the same on the grounds that both parties harboured corrupt leaders and engaged in identity politics. The INC's official election slogan was "Aar kono bhul na, aar kono phul na" ("No More Mistakes, No More Flowers", referring to the election symbols of BJP and TMC). The Left Front also criticised both the parties in social media under the term Bijemool (portmanteau of the words BJP and Trinamool). This didn't catch on with the electorate, who saw BJP as a Hindu right-wing party and TMC as a center-left party.[378]
  • In spite of fielding Hindu candidates in the seats it had been allotted, public perception about ISF remained to be of a party by and for Muslims led by a hardliner cleric, Abbas Siddiqui, who had compared actress and TMC MP Nusrat Jahan to a prostitute in one of his apolitical jalsas in the past,[379] and the alliance between them and Peerzada of Furfura Sharif was met with unease within the INC.[380] The alliance with ISF wasn't appreciated by the Left Front workers at the grassroots level, who saw it as a violation of the Communist viewpoint of religion being the opium of the masses.
  • The inability of aged leaders at the top of Left Front to adapt to changed conditions in state politics & lack of youth representation in the top decision-making bodies has also been cited as a reason.[381]
  • In spite of mobilising huge amounts of crowds in the first rally of the Sanyukta Morcha at the Brigade Parade grounds before the elections began,[382] ISF failed to divide the Muslim votes between itself and TMC in Presidency division and Burdwan division as expected from it[379] in the aftermath of the Sitalkuchi shooting incident. The victory ISF's lone winning candidate (Abbas's brother Nowshad Siddiqui) in Bhangar has been credited to Arabul Islam's dissatisfaction for not being fielded as the candidate and the resulting non-cooperation with the district TMC leadership.[383]

Veteran BJP leader Tathagata Roy lashed out at the party leadership on Twitter for viewing the ground conditions in the state through what he called KDSA (i.e. Kailash Vijayvargiya, Dilip Ghosh, Shiv Prakash and Arvind Menon)[384] and questioned the party's decision to field Nogorer notis (transl. "City prostitutes"), referring to actresses Payel Sarkar, Tanushree Chakraborty and Srabanti Chatterjee, who were seen in a boat ride with TMC leader Madan Mitra in the past.[385] He also specifically blamed Dilip Ghosh's many controversial remarks, most notably his misogynistic comments against Goddess Durga, the most widely revered Hindu deity in Bengali Hindu society in his attempt to glorify Lord Rama, the most widely revered Hindu deity in North Indian Hindu society[m] & the ideological poster-boy of the RSS-BJP alongside Hanuman since the days of the Ram-mandir movement to justify the 'holier-than-thou' attitude of the Bengali Hindu supporters of BJP over the Bengali Hindus who don't support the BJP at a media conclave while campaigning for the elections, to be responsible for the party's poor performance. His Nogorer Noti remark drew widespread criticism online.

The average winning margin of all the candidates in this election stood at 26,964 votes, while the same for AITC candidates was 31,760 votes.[386] This loss was stated by the media to be Modi's personal failure.[387]

In view of the popular slogan "Khela Hobe", Mamata Banerjee declared that her party would observe 16 August as Khela Hobe Divas, which the BJP tried to link with Direct Action Day.[388] She also launched a government scheme named "Khela Hobe" which granted 5,00,000 INR and free footballs among 25,000 sporting clubs in the state to promote sports in economically poorer sections of society.[389]

Countering Shah's claim that BJP would come to power in West Bengal by winning around 200 or more seats out of the 294 seats in the state legislative assembly,[390][391] Kishor publicly declared that he would resign from his job if BJP managed to win more than a 100 seats in this elections.[392] Although he delivered his promise, Kishor declared his retirement from on being an election strategist on 2 May, citing personal reasons.[393][394][395]

Allegations of partial Election Commission

Election strategist Prashant Kishor who helped TMC in the elections, accused the Election Commission of being partial and helping the BJP saying, "I have never seen a more partial Election Commission... It did everything to help the BJP... From allowing the use of religion to scheduling the poll and bending the rules, the ECI did everything to help the BJP."[396]

Aftermath

Violence

Politically motivated violence in West Bengal took place since before the 2021 West Bengal elections.

In June 2019, 2 Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers were killed in Bengal. The party had blamed Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) for it.

Indian Home Minister and BJP member Amit Shah said that more than 300 BJP members were killed due to the political violence as of December 2020 and that "investigation in those cases hasn't moved an inch".

After results were announced, post-poll violence broke out in some areas of the state. In reality it was continuation of the violence which took place across the state during the election.[397][398] In recent times, the first occurrence of post-poll violence in the state was recorded in 2019 when BJP members targeted TMC staff and forcibly occupied or vandalised local TMC offices, mainly at the behest of the newly elected Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh.[399][400]

On May 2, the results had just started showing signs of Trinamool returning to power when the men arrived, going house to house, ransacking them, breaking some. By the end of the day, 40 families of a colony located on KPC Medical College grounds in Jadavpur had fled. All BJP supporters or workers say TMC threats had kept them away for two-and-a-half months .[401]

Government formation

Mamata Banerjee took an oath as the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the third time on 5 May 2021 at the Raj Bhawan in Kolkata.[402] She expanded the cabinet on 10 May 2021 when 43 TMC leaders were sworn in as ministers.[403] 17 new people were in the Third Banerjee ministry.[404][405]

Vacant seats

TMC candidate Kajal Sinha from Khardaha died from COVID-19 after polling but before the results of the state assembly elections were announced, in which he emerged victorious.[406] The ECI deferred the elections to two assembly seats in West Bengal in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The polling had been rescheduled earlier to 16 May 2021 due to the death of two contestants from the Samserganj and Jangipur constituencies.[407] Mocking this decision, the TMC said "The Election Commission, though late, finally woke up. But when demands were made repeatedly to arrange the election in one day by combining 2–3 phases, then they remained silent."[408] Two BJP MLAs – Nisith Pramanik from Dinhata and Jaganath Sarkar from Shantipur constituencies – resigned after the election results, as they were sitting MPs from Cooch Behar and Ranaghat, respectively, and wanted to continue as MPs.[409] Jayanta Naskar, TMC MLA of Gosaba, died from COVID-19 on 19 June after testing negative for the disease.[410][411][412]

Appointments

Adhikari, with the support of 22 MLAs, was elected as Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on 10 May 2021.[413][414]

BJP MPs Subhash Sarkar from Bankura, John Barla from Alipurduar, Nisith Pramanik from Coochbehar, and Shantanu Thakur from Bangaon were made ministers-of-state in the Union Caninet after the polls.[415]

Incumbent Cabinet ministers from the state, Babul Supriyo from Asansol and Debasree Chaudhuri from Raiganj, resigned from their positions due to their failure in rallying the voters from their respective constituencies to vote for BJP.[416] After the Cabinet reshuffle, Supriyo stated that he was quitting politics and his position as an MP, but after meeting the leaders of BJP, he decided to retain his position as an MP. He later joined TMC, stating that he wanted to remain in politics but his political participation was being restricted by BJP due to his defeat from Tollyganj and the party's poor performance in Asanol.[417]

Abhishek Banerjee was promoted from the president of state TMC's youth wing to all-India general secretary.[418]

Long time RSS activist and Balurghat MP Sukanta Majumdar succeeded Dilip Ghosh as the president of the state BJP unit, while Ghosh was made one of the national vice-presidents of the party.[419]

Defections

The Union Home Ministry decided to provide Y+ category security to Sisir Adhikari and his son Dibyendu Adhikari.[420][421][422]

East Bardhaman MP Sunil Mondal, who had earlier defected from TMC to BJP alongside Adhikari in 2020,[20] declared in August that he was "always with the TMC".[423]

Adhikari demanded that the speaker Biman Banerjee dismiss Mukul Roy from the legislative assembly according to the anti-defection law, but TMC stated if Adhikari's father Sisir Adhikari can remain the MP from Kanthi even after switching from TMC to BJP in early 2021, then why Roy should be allowed to as well.[424]

Four other MLAs – Soumen Roy from Kaliaganj,[425] Biswajit Das from Bagda,[426] Tanmoy Ghosh from Bishnupur[427] and Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj[428][429][430][431] switched from BJP to TMC following Roy without being disqualified from their membership. All-India president of Congress's women's wing and its national spokesperson and former Silchar MP Sushmita Dev joined TMC,[432] and was followed by Luizinho Faleiro.[433][434][435]

After joining TMC,[436][437] Supriyo resigned as MP on 19 October.[438][439]

Two senior Congress leaders of Uttar Pradesh, Rajeshpati Tripathi and Laliteshpati Tripathi, grandson and great-grandson of former UP Chief Minister Kamalapati Tripathi, respectively, joined TMC.[440][441][442]

2021 by-polls

The ECI deferred the elections in Samserganj and Jangipur constituencies due to the death of two candidates.[75]

AITC MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay from Bhabanipur resigned after the election to allow Mamata Banerjee to contest a by-election in the constituency.[443]

In the beginning of September, the ECI announced that general elections for Jangipur and Samserganj assembly seats and by-election for Bhabanipur seat would be held on 30 September and votes would be counted on 3 October. The time limit for filing nominations was set from 6 September until 13 September for Bhabanipur only.[78][4][444] Mamata Banerjee filed hers on 10 September.[445][446] A total of 12 candidates contested in Bhabanipur by-poll.[447][448] Kishor enrolled himself as a voter from Bhabanipur, but he did not cast his vote.[449][450]

A total of 52 central forces companies were deployed to the three poll-bound Assembly constituencies' booths.[451][452][453][454] Section 144 was enforced in Bhabanipur on 28 September.[455][456] On the eve of polling, the Commission deployed an additional 20 companies of central forces in Bhabanipur.[457][458][459]

On 28 September, the ECI announced that remaining by-polls would be held on 30 October and votes counted on 2 November.[460][461]

On 30 September the first report of violence came from Samserganj, and Congress candidate Jaidur Rahaman was accused of carrying out a bombing in this constituency.[462] TMC activists raised "go back" slogans surrounding him while he inspected booths on polling day. Central forces were accused of kicking TMC leader Habibur Rahman, the outgoing councilor of Ward 20 of Dhulian Municipality under Samserganj Assembly.[463][464] Priyanka Tibrewal, BJP candidate of Bhabanipur, was accused of violating the ECI's model code of conduct by travelling across the area with many cars and people at once.[465][466] After she claimed to have caught fake voters, Firhad Hakim pointed out that as a candidate she had no right to check their identities.[467] BJP leader Kalyan Chaubey's car was allegedly vandalised in Bhabanipur and BJP blamed TMC for the act.[468] Police released CCTV footage of the incident, claiming it had nothing to do with politics.[469][470] BJP claimed that Chaubey was their candidate's election agent but according to Commission sources, he was the agent of a Hindustani Awam Morcha candidate. The vehicle he used to get to the polling constituency was not registered by the EC. BJP lodged a total of 23 complaints against TMC over the voting process in Bhabanipur, but the ECI dismissed all of them.[471] A total of 697,164 voters were eligible to cast their votes in the three constituencies.[296][297][201][202] The voter turnout for Samserganj, Jangipur, and Bhabanipur was recorded at 79.92%, 77.63%, and 57.09% respectively.[472][473]

Results were announced on 3 October, with TMC winning the three seats.[474] Mamata Banerjee won the Bhabanipur Assembly seat by a margin of 58,835 votes over the BJP candidate.[2][475][476] TMC led in all wards of Bhabanipur, including wards 70 and 74, where BJP led in the last assembly polls.[477] On the same day, TMC officially announced a list of candidates for upcoming assembly by-elections to four seats.[478]

The Model Code of Conduct was imposed in Nadia, Cooch Behar, Khardaha, and Gosaba.[479] The ECI initially deployed 27 companies of central forces for the remaining by-elections.[480][481] A week before the by-elections, an additional 53 companies entered the state.[482] Later, the ECI decided to deploy a total of 92 CAPF companies.[483]

On the last day of the Dinhata by-election campaign, Dilip Ghosh and Sukanta Majumdar met the deputy inspector general of police, Shailendra Kumar Singh, at the Border Security Force sector headquarters of Sonari in Cooch Behar. This was controversial because the Chief Minister could not even hold administrative meetings with Cooch Behar district officials, as the model code of conduct was in effect. Reacting to this, Hakim said "Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs has increased the jurisdiction of BSF to 50 km.[484][485][486] Taking advantage of this, the BJP leaders went to pull the BSF chief over to their side." TMC lodged a complaint with the ECI.[487][488] A TMC deputy went to the district magistrate's chamber and complained that the BSF-BJP meeting had violated the model code of conduct.[489]

On polling day, central forces were accused of intimidating voters at booth 296 in Dinhata and some other booths in Kharadaha and Gosaba.[490][491] In Kharadha, the central forces prevented TMC candidate Sovandeb Chattopadhyay from entering a booth, who alleged that they unfairly demanded to see double vaccination certificates from voters. The problem was resolved after informing the matter to the presiding officer.[492][493] During the election campaign, Joy Saha, BJP candidate of Khardaha, used a picture of the deceased TMC leader Kajal Sinha in his campaign.[494] On election day, he claimed to have caught two fake voters red-handed, which was proven false. When he claimed to have caught a fake voter and BJP supporters started harassing the man, a fight broke out between the TMC and the BJP over the incident.[495] Joy Saha's personal security guards baton charged TMC activists, injuring the Sinha's son in the process.[496][497] Gosaba registered highest voter turnout among four constituencies.[498][499]

The results of the four constituencies was announced on 2 November, with TMC winning all seats.[500] TMC's Sovandeb Chattopadhyay and Subrata Mondal won Khardaha[501] and Gosaba,[502] respectively, by huge margins. Udayan Guha, who lost the Dinhata seat by a margin of 57 votes during the assembly election, won the seat in the bypolls by a margin of 164,089 votes.[503] TMC also won the Santipur seat, where Braja Kishor Goswami[504] was the TMC candidate, from the BJP by a considerable margin of votes.[505]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Ghosh was the sitting MP for Medinipur
  2. ^ Chowdhury was the sitting MP for Baharampur
  3. ^ Shyamaprasad Mukherjee was initially a member of the Hindu Mahasabha. After the Mahasabha became unpopular due to its involvement in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Mukherjee formed a new Hindu right-wing party called Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). During the Emergency era, Atal Bihari Vajpayee merged the BJS with other parties to form the Janata Party. Following disagreements with Morarji Desai over his Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) membership, Vajpayee broke away from the Janata Party and re-created the BJS under the name of BJP. Although Vajpayee is the legal founder of BJP, the party sees itself as a continuation of BJS and thus considers Mukherjee to be the founder of BJP.
  4. ^ Apart from these, an announcement about two new municipalities was made in October 2021.[25][26] Bally Municipality was re-established on 12 November 2021.[27][28]
  5. ^ a b c For candidates only sponsored by the Indian National Congress in Samserganj[80] and Revolutionary Socialist Party in Jangipur.[81]
  6. ^ Marxist Forward Bloc contested the election on the "Hammer Sickle and Star" symbol and name of national political party Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM).
  7. ^ Indian Secular Front is an unregistered political party and it contested the election on the "Envelope" symbol and name of Bihar-based political party Rashtriya Secular Majlis Party (RSMP).[105][94]
  8. ^ This survey was larger than any other opinion poll conducted by other agencies, on the basis of sample size, which for this survey was 147,000.
  9. ^ Apart from these, there were 128 overseas electors. Among them, 2 electors exercised their franchise.[103]
  10. ^ a b Election postponed due to candidate's death before the scheduled date of poll
  11. ^ Unlike in the Middle East, 'harem' in the Indian subcontinent referred to the inner apartments of a Muslim household exclusively reserved for concubines, while the same for legitimately-wedded wives is called as zenana
  12. ^ According to the definition of a Hindu, as espoused by Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the BJP regards the Adivasi people as part of the Hindu society, & the RSS has always tried to make the Adivasis abandon their indigenous folk religion in favour of mainstream Hinduism in order to facilitate their integration into Hindu society, however certain Adivasi groups have resisted these attempts & have demanded their religion to be recognised as a separate religion
  13. ^ worship of Rama is not much popular in Bengal, due to the influence of Radha Krishna-centric Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Shaktism centred around Durga & Kali and Shiva-centric Nath ideology

Citations

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Further reading

External links

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