KOLKATA: Polling has begun in 152 of the 294 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal in the first phase on Thursday, setting in motion a high-stakes contest that will shape the electoral fortunes of the ruling All India Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee and its principal challenger, the Bharatiya Janata Party. The second phase of polling, covering the remaining 142 seats, is scheduled to be held on April 29.
The first phase spans 16 districts, with a clear regional divide shaping the contest. Of the 152 seats, 54 fall in North Bengal districts—Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda—seen as a BJP stronghold. The remaining 98 constituencies lie in districts such as Murshidabad, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Purulia, Bankura, West Bardhaman and Birbhum, long considered the TMC citadel.
Beyond the principal TMC-BJP contest, the phase will also test whether the Left Front and the Congress can regain ground. This comes amid the backdrop of 91 lakh deletions of voters from post-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) electoral rolls and an increasingly polarised campaign in which issues such as corruption, scams, the cash-for-jobs recruitment scam, women’s security concerns, infiltration and tribal discontent have made Bengal one of the most politically charged states.
More than 3.60 crore voters, including 1.75 crore women, are eligible to vote in this phase. The Election Commission has deployed a record 2,450 companies of central forces, with over 8,000 polling stations identified as highly sensitive. Each company consists of 75 personnel.
Thursday’s vote is seen as an acid test for the BJP, particularly at a time when the party’s central leadership—PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah—has expressed confidence about winning Bengal.
BJP MP Jayanta Kumar Roy said, “We are expecting an unexpected result in eight North Bengal districts. Barring a few seats, we will win most of the 54 constituencies in these districts if elections are fair. The TMC goons are unleashing threats, asking many voters in different parts of Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar not to go to booths to cast votes.”
For the BJP, the first phase is virtually synonymous with North Bengal. The party’s hopes of challenging the TMC across the state depend heavily on retaining dominance in this region, which powered its rise in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and helped it emerge as the ruling party’s principal rival.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP had won 59 of these 152 seats, while the TMC secured 93. For the saffron camp, therefore, this phase presents its best opportunity to offset Banerjee’s enduring strength in South Bengal.
The TMC has projected confidence of surpassing its previous tally. Party spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said, “Our target is to increase the tally to 215 in the 2026 elections against the 214 we had bagged in 2021. Mamata Banerjee has already said that the party will cross the previous figure by winning one more seat.”
Despite the varied geography the first phase characterises—from the tea gardens of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar to the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong, the Rajbanshi belt of Cooch Behar and the border districts of Malda, Murshidabad and Uttar Dinajpur—one issue has cast a shadow across regions: the SIR.
With around 91 lakh names deleted, the TMC fears an adverse impact on its minority vote base, as nearly 70% of the removed electors in the eight North Bengal districts and Murshidabad are Muslims. The scale of deletions is significant at the district level—Nadia saw over 4.85 lakh deletions, Malda 4.59 lakh, Uttar Dinajpur 3.63 lakh and Cooch Behar 2.42 lakh. In 2021, the TMC had won 20 of these 152 seats by margins of less than 20,000 votes, underlining how crucial marginal shifts in rolls could be.
The first phase will decide the fate of several prominent leaders, including LoP Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram, former Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh, former Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Behrampore, among others.