2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election

2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election

27 March – 29 April 2021 (292 seats) 30 September 2021 (2 remaining seats)
294 seats in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly 148 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	82.30% ( 0.72%)
Majority party Minority party Third party   CPI(M) Leader Mamata Banerjee Dilip Ghosh Surjya Kanta Mishra Party AITC BJP CPI(M) Alliance AITC+ NDA Sanjukta Morcha Leader since 1998 2015 2015 Leader's seat Nandigram (Sub judice, won By-election at Bhabanipur) Did not contest Did not contest Last election 44.91% votes 211 seats 10.16% votes 3 seats 19.75% votes 26 seats Seats before 211 3 26 Seats won 215 77 0 Seat change 4 74 26 Popular vote 28,968,281 22,905,474 2,843,434 Percentage 48.02% 37.97% 4.71% Swing 3.11% 27.81% 15.04%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Md. Nawsad Siddique Party INC Indian Secular Front Alliance Sanjukta Morcha Sanjukta Morcha Leader since 2020 2021 Leader's seat Did not contest Bhangar Last election 12.25% votes 44 seats didn't exist Seats before 44 0 Seats won 0 1 Seat change 44 1 Popular vote 1,827,169 813,489 Percentage 3.03% 1.36% Swing 9.22 1.36%
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 for 292 of the 294 constituencies in West Bengal was held between 27 March to 29 April 2021 in eight phases. Voting for the two remaining constituencies was delayed to 30 September 2021.

The incumbent All India Trinamool Congress government led by Mamata Banerjee won the election by a large margin, despite opinion polls generally predicting a close race against the Bharatiya Janata Party, which became the official opposition with 77 seats. The Sanjukta Morcha won one seat, and the Indian National Congress and the left parties did not win any seats.

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. 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.

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.

Political developments

Since the by-elections held for the Contai 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. 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. 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.

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 the Left Front did not win any seats. Public anger towards the alleged 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 alleged tactics of Muslim appeasement, and large scale support of the Rajbongshi and Matua communities for granting Indian citizenship to exclusively non-Muslim Bangladeshi immigrants 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 by revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir 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 for the first time as a means of paying homage to Syama Prasad 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.

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, 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. His father Sisir Adhikari, the MP from Kanthi, also defected from TMC to BJP. Another cabinet minister, Rajib Banerjee, also joined BJP.

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 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 and the municipal coporations 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

Main article: COVID-19 pandemic in West Bengal

The pandemic became an election issue. The government was accused of "fudging" the count of positive cases and deaths in the region, 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.

Modi was accused of holding rallies and flouting COVID-19 rules despite a second wave of the pandemic. Tens of thousands of people attended the rallies, which epidemiologists called a superspreader events. Modi was criticised for praising a large crowd at his rally in Asansol. By 19 April 2021, COVID-19 infections had quadrupled from the start of the month. Modi had insisted that rallying was a constitutional right, and was also accused of misusing the money of PM Cares fund for election purposes. 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, and for also holding election rallies. Sanjukta Morcha held the first Brigade rally ahead of polling in West Bengal. In mid-April, TMC requested holding the remaining phases of the elections in a single phase amid the rising number of COVID cases, but it was rejected by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Cyclone Amphan

Main article: 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. After it passed, widespread allegations of mismanagement and relief scam were reported. Protests broke out in some districts over the allegations, and the opposition made it an election issue ahead of the Assembly polls.

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. 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.

Other issues

Polarisation amongst various religious, linguistic, and caste communities were also likely to play a role in this election. Both TMC and BJP had promised schemes for various communities. Although previously mobilized by Left governments against elites under the "class" narrative, the Dalits of West Bengal began to assert their identity politically. 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. 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.

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. Just as Banerjee got up to speak, BJP supporters started chanting "Jai Shri Ram" which prompted the CM to abandon her speech. 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. Mamata claimed that the BJP had "insulted Netaji and Bengal" by their actions. The BJP leadership criticised Banerjee while the Left Front and the Congress backed her and condemned the BJP for the incident of Victoria Memorial. 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.

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. 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. Due to polling abnormalities, re-polling for booth number 88 in Jangipara was held in the fourth phase. 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. Polling for these two seats was originally rescheduled to 13 May 2021, but as that day was Eid, it was pushed back to 16 May. Later on ECI adjourned polling for both constituencies and it took place on 30 September. Repolling at the Amtali Madhyamik Siksha Kendra polling station in Sitalkuchi was conducted on 29 April, after CISF personnel were fired on 10 April.

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
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
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
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
Date of Counting of Votes	2 May 2021								3 October 2021

Parties and alliances

Main article: Parties and alliances in 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election

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. 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. RJD, Shiv Sena, and JMM also endorsed Trinamool for the election. TMC supported Independent candidate in Joypur after their candidate's nomination was cancelled.

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

Main article: 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. Out of the 193 seats agreed upon by 28 January 92 went to Congress and 101 to the Left Front. Left Congress and ISF announced that they would form an alliance called Sanyukta Morcha on 28 February 2021. ISF initially claimed that they secured 30 seats from the Left Front's quota. 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.

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. INC revealed its first list of 13 candidates for the first two phases on 6 March. 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; 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. On 14 March, INC revealed their second list of 34 candidates on 14 March, and ISF their first set of 20 candidates. Sanyukta Morcha announced 15 more candidates on 17 March consisting of 9 from the Left Front, 2 from INC, and 4 from ISF. INC revealed their third list of 39 candidates on 20 March, 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
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	CPI(M)		Surjya Kanta Mishra	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	MFB		Samar Hazra		1
	Indian National Congress	INC		Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury	-	92
	Indian Secular Front	ISF		Abbas Siddiqui	-	32

National Democratic Alliance

Main article: 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. Hindu Samhati, a right-wing organisation in West Bengal, had withdrawn their support from the BJP at first to contest the elections on their own, but eventually they supported the BJP. BJP allotted the Amta constituency seat to the president of Hindu Samhati to contest under the symbol of BJP.

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).

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, but later on 4 March 2021 announced that they would not contest and would support Mamata Banerjee and TMC.

Party			Symbol	Leader(s)	Contesting Seats
	Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist)	SUCI(C)		Provash Ghosh	190
	Janata Dal (United)	JD(U)		Sanjay Verma	16
	Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation	CPI(ML)L		Dipankar Bhattacharya	12
	Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Red Star	CPI(ML) Red Star		K N Ramchandran	3
	All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen	AIMIM		Asaduddin Owaisi	6
	Bahujan Samaj Party	BSP		Mayawati	162
	National People's Party	NPP			3

Candidates

Further information: List of candidates in the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election

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, but the ban ended half an hour earlier.

Date published	Polling agency					Lead
		AITC+	BJP+	SM	Others
29 April 2021	ABP News – C-Voter	152–164	109–121	14–25	–	31–55
		42.1%	39.2%	15.4%	3.3%	2.9%
29 April 2021	NK Digital Magazine	(193+1)=194	73	22	3	121
30 April – 1 May 2021	Ekhon Biswa Bangla Sangbad	217	63	10±2	2	154
30 April 2021	FAM Community	(182–1)=181	99	(12–1)=11	1	82
29 April 2021	DB Live	154–169	94–109	24–34	0–1	45–75
29 April 2021	Drishtibhongi	174	103	15	2	71
		45%	38%	12%	5%	7%
29 April 2021	Ground Zero Research	154–186	96–124	6–14	2–3	30–90
29 April 2021	IPSOS	158	115	19	–	43
29 April 2021	Today's Chanakya	169–191	97–119	0–8	0–3	50–94
		46%	39%	9%	6%	7%
29 April 2021	ETG Research	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	152–172	112–132	10–20	–	20–60
		44%	40%	12%	–	4%
29 April 2021	NEWSX – Polstrat	152–162	115–125	16–26	–	27–47
29 April 2021	TV9 Bharatvarsh – Polstrat'	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	130–156	134–160	0–2	0–1	HUNG
		44%	43%	10%	3%	1%
29 April 2021	India TV – Peoples Pulse	64–88	173–192	7–12	–	85–128
29 April 2021	Jan-Ki-Baat	104–121	162–185	3–9	–	58–64
		44–45%	46–48%	5–8%	2%	1–4%
29 April 2021	Priyo Bandhu Media	82	187	22	1	105
29 April 2021	Arambagh TV	84–119	159–192	11–20	–	40–108
29 April 2021	Sudarshan News	97–104	170–180	6–10	1–3	66–83
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. Ekhon Biswa Bangla Sangbad predicted TMC's victory in all three seats where elections took place on 30 September.

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.

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

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

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. The maximum number of voters for each polling station was lowered to 1000 from 1500.

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, the ECI issued warnings for all recognised state and national political parties to strictly follow COVID-19 guidelines, and banned all political rallies, public meetings, street plays and nukkad sabhas from 7 pm to 10 am starting from 16 April. 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. On 27 April, they issued a notification over banning victory processions on and after the day the votes were counted.

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. 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). The total number of central forces rose to 725, before a final total of 1,000 companies after the third phase of polling.

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

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
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

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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.
• On their way to attend the Brigade rally of Sanjukta Morcha, ISF workers attacked TMC activists in Bhangar.
• 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. BJP MP Subramanian Swamy made a direct call to her office and inquired about her health before giving a statement wishing her good health. A day after being injured, Mamata Banerjee released a video message urging people and party workers to be calm and exercise restraint. Two days after being admitted, she was discharged at the TMC's multiple requests. 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." 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. TMC leaders stated that most of those who were giving eyewitness statements were BJP staff members 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')."
• 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. On 23 March, she repeated these claims and made demands to seal the border areas. 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. 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.)
• In Baruipur, a TMC activist was killed in clash with members of CPI(M) and ISF.
• Before the first phase of election, an election vehicle was set on fire by two unknown men.
• 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, then she should wear bermuda shorts instead of a saree.
• 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.
• Two security personnel were reportedly injured in Satsatmal village, Purba Medinipur district, in a firing and bombing incident during phase 1 of polling.
• A BJP worker's dead body was found in Paschim Medinipur during the first phase of election. The ECI said that they did not find any political motive in his death.
• Three TMC activists were injured in a blast in Bankura during the first phase of elections.
• 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. On 31 March, Mamata Banerjee said that her car was attacked again in Nandigram a day ago when she visited Manna's house. 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• On 28 March, the ECI stated that 56 bombs were seized from Narendrapur of South 24 Parganas district.
• During the nomination filing by the BJP candidate in Bijpur, gunshots were fired and later clashes broke out between BJP and TMC staff.
• 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.
• On 2 April, the West Bengal Police seized 41 crude bombs in Bhangar.
• During the third phase of polling (6 April), Sujata Mondal, TMC candidate in Arambag, was attacked by some goons at Arandi-I booth 263.
• 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.
• The TMC accused the BJP of distributing cash coupons among people to lure them to attend Modi's rally.
• 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. 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 cliamed the firing was deliberate, and that they were in a queue to vote. Media staff found video footage from local sources, but Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey called it fake without citing any proper reason.
• 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). 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.
• 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. 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. 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.
• 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.
• On the night before the fifth phase, a picture of the BJP candidate for Ranaghat having lunch with central forces spread on the internet.
• 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.
• BJP candidate Gopal Chandra Saha was shot at while campaigning in Maldaha, and was admitted to a hospital.
• In Jalpaiguri, after polling ended, four BJP agents were found with central force personnel carrying electronic voting machines.
• 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. The ECI put Mondal under "strict surveillance" for 62 hours from 5 pm on 27 April to 7 am on 30 April.)
• On 29 April, during the eighth phase of voting, crude bombs were hurled near Mahajati Sadan in northern Kolkata.

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.

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%)

• Declared on 2 May 2021:

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Contested	Won	+/−
	All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)	28,735,420	47.94		288	213	2
	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	22,850,710	38.13		291	77	74
	Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM)	2,837,276	4.73		138	0	26
	Indian National Congress (INC)	1,757,131	2.93		91	0	44
	Indian Secular Front (ISF)	813,489	1.36		32	1	1
	All India Forward Bloc (AIFB)	318,932	0.53		21	0	3
	Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)	126,121	0.21		10	0	2
	Communist Party Of India (CPI)	118,655	0.20		10	0	1
	Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) (T) Faction	163,797	0.27		3	1	1
	Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) (G) Faction	103,190	0.17		3	0	3
	None of the above (NOTA)	646,828	1.08
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

• Declared on 3 October 2021:

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		290	215	4
	BJP	54,764	14.16	2	0	22,905,474	37.97		293	77	74
	CPI(M)	6,158	1.59	1	0	2,843,434	4.71		139	0	26
	INC	70,038	18.10	1	0	1,827,169	3.03		92	0	44
	RSP	9,067	2.34	1	0	135,188	0.22		11	0	2
	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	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	SNM		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	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

Constituency-wise results

Main article: List of constituency wise results of 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election

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	Shankar 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		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		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	Dr. 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	Dr. 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		AITC	Manju Basu	94,203	48.9		BJP	Sunil Singh	67,493	35.04	26,710
108	Barrackpore		AITC	Raj Chakraborty	68,887	46.47		BJP	Chandramani Shukla	59,665	40.25	9,222
109	Khardaha		AITC	Kajal Sinha	89,807	49.04		BJP	Silbhadra Datta	61,667	33.67	28,140
110	Dum Dum Uttar		AITC	Chandrima Bhattacharya	95,465	44.79		BJP	Dr. 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	Dr. Bhaskar Sardar	72,765	35.36	39,685
124	Basirhat Dakshin		AITC	Dr. 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		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	Dr. Indranil Khan	57,750	25.88	63,622
150	Jadavpur		AITC	Debabrata Majumdar (Malay)	98,100	45.54		CPI(M)	Dr. 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	Dr. 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	Dr. 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	Dr. 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	Dr. 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	Dr. 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	Dr. 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	Dr. 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		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	Dr. 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	Manteswar		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	Pandaveswar		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	Dr. 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	Dr. 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

Nandigram controversy

Main article: 2021 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.

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 and imposed Section 144 in that constituency. A day after the polling, stray clashes took place between workers of the TMC and the BJP in some parts of Nandigram.

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. In the 16th round, when the counting of votes in Gokulnagar panchayat area started, Mamata fell behind. 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. 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.

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.

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. Adhikari went to the Supreme Court seeking transfer of Banerjee's election petition case outside the state.

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. 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.

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. According to many analysts the seats that the INC-Left Front alliance won in 2016 went to BJP, with TMC having an equal retention rate.

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 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 people from power, resulting in the defeat of 142 TMC turncoats who had been fielded by BJP as candidates in this election. 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 due to a lack of jobs in the region and had voted for BJP in the 2019 elections in the hopes of industrialisation. 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.
• 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, and Ghosh's derogatory comments on Mamata Banerjee's injury, 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. A large number of Bengali women (constituting 49% of the electorate) did not vote for BJP in spite of electoral promises.
• Attempts made by BJP leaders to convert the tribal population into Hinduism were widely unpopular, especially in the tribal-dominated Medinipur division 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) made the party unpopular to the Bengali middle-class.
• To compensate for the lack of organisational strength in the state, 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, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Prahlad Patel, Sanjeev Balyan, Arjun Munda, Mansukh L. Mandaviya, Keshav Prasad Maurya, Narottam Mishra, 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 national 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 North Indian culture by the BJP.
• 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, 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 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, 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 the2019 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).
• To tone down the allegations of Muslim appeasement made against her, Mamata Banerjee declared an allowance for Hindu priests, providing 50,000 INR to each Durga Puja committee in the state, emphasising her Brahmin background and reciting shlokas from the Devi Mahatmya in political rallies.
• The Didi Ke Bolo campaign launched by Prashant Kishor helped the electorate directly communicate with Mamata Banerjee and was widely popular in the state. The programs aimed to rebrand the public image of Mamata Banerjee as 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.
• 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") and Paraye Paraye Somadhan (transl. "Solution at your neighbourhood") which aimed to directly deliver welfare schemes run by the state government to the public, and were well received.
• 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 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")
• Mamata Banerjee's decision to contest the elections only from Nandigram instead of Bhabanipur 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. 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 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. The TMC utilised this indomitable fighter spirit of her through its unofficial election anthem "Khela Hobe" (transl. "The game is on"), which was later modified into the slogan "Bhanga Paye Khela Hobe" (transl. "The game will be played even with a fractured leg").
• 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.
• 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 for the TMC in the election.

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. 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. This stategy 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" 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 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: 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 confused the electorate, who saw BJP as a Hindu right-wing party and TMC as a center-left party.
• In spite of fielding Hindu candidates in the seats it had, 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), and the alliance between them and Peerzada of Furfura Sharif was met with unease within the INC.
• The inability of aged leaders at the top of Left Front to adapt to changed conditions in state politics has also been cited as a reason.
• 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, ISF failed to divide the Muslim votes between itself and TMC in Presidency division and Burdwan division as expected in the aftermath of the Sitalkuchi shooting incident. 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.

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) 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. 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. This loss was stated by the media to be Modi's personal failure.

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. 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.

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, Kishor publicly declared that he would resign from his job if BJP managed to win more than a 100 seats in this elections. Although he delivered his promise, Kishor declared his retirement from on being an election strategist on 2 May, citing personal reasons.

Aftermath

Violence

Main article: 2021 Bengal post-poll violence

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. 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.

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. She expanded the cabinet on 10 May 2021 when 43 TMC leaders were sworn in as ministers. 17 new people were in the Third Banerjee ministry.

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. 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. 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." 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. Jayanta Naskar, TMC MLA of Gosaba, died from COVID-19 on 19 June after testing negative for the disease.

Appointments

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

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.

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. 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.

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

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.

Defections

The Union Home Ministry decided to provide Y+ category security to Sisir Adhikari and his son Dibyendu Adhikari.

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

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.

Four other MLAs – Soumen Roy from Kaliaganj, Biswajit Das from Bagda, Tanmoy Ghosh from Bishnupur and Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj 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, and was followed by Luizinho Faleiro.

After joining TMC, Supriyo resigned as MP on 19 October.

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.

2021 by-polls

Main article: 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly by-elections

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

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

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 till 13 September for Bhabanipur only. Mamata Banerjee filed hers on 10 September. A total of 12 candidates contested in Bhabanipur by-poll. Kishor enrolled himself as a voter from Bhabanipur, but he did not cast his vote.

A total of 52 central forces companies were deployed to the three poll-bound Assembly constituencies' booths. Section 144 was enforced in Bhabanipur on 28 September. On the eve of polling, the Commission deployed an additional 20 companies of central forces in Bhabanipur.

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

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. 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. 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. After she claimed to have caught fake voters, Firhad Hakim pointed out that as a candidate she had no right to check their identities. BJP leader Kalyan Chaubey's car was allegedly vandalised in Bhabanipur and BJP blamed TMC for the act. Police released CCTV footage of the incident, claiming it had nothing to do with politics. 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. A total of 697,164 voters were eligible to cast their votes in the three constituencies. The voter turnout for Samserganj, Jangipur, and Bhabanipur was recorded at 79.92%, 77.63%, and 57.09% respectively.

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

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

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. Taking advantage of this, the BJP leaders went to pull the BSF chief over to their side." TMC lodged a complaint with the ECI. A TMC deputy went to the district magistrate's chamber and complained that the BSF-BJP meeting had violated the model code of conduct.

On polling day, central forces were accused of intimidating voters at booth 296 in Dinhata and some other booths in Kharadaha and Gosaba. 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. During the election campaign, Joy Saha, BJP candidate of Khardaha, used a picture of the deceased TMC leader Kajal Sinha in his campaign. 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. Joy Saha's personal security guards baton charged TMC activists, injuring the Sinha's son in the process. Gosaba registered highest voter turnout among four constituencies.

The results of the four constituencies was announced on 2 November, with TMC winning all seats. TMC's Sovandeb Chattopadhyay and Subrata Mondal won Khardaha and Gosaba, 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. TMC also won the Santipur seat, where Braja Kishor Goswami was the TMC candidate, from the BJP by a considerable margin of votes.

See also

• 2016–21 West Bengal Legislative Assembly by-elections
• 2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election
• 2018 West Bengal Panchayat elections
• 2019 Indian general election in West Bengal
• 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly by-elections
• 2021 Kolkata Municipal Corporation election
• 2021 elections in India

Further reading

• Halder, Deep (2021). Bengal 2021: An Election Diary. India: HarperCollins. ISBN 9789354224171.

External links

• West Bengal General Legislative Election at the Election Commission of India

See also

• No Vote To BJP