West Bengal polls: TMC announces list of 291 candidates; stage set for Babanipur Suvendu vs Mamata

New Delhi: The All India Trinamool Congress on Tuesday announced its list of candidates for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections. Party president and chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced that the party will contest 291 of the 294 seats in the state. The remaining three seats in the Darjeeling hills will be contested by the Indian Gorkha Prajatan Tribute Morcha (BGPM) led by Anit Thapa.Mamata has decided to contest the elections from Babanipur against the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari. Meanwhile, the TMC has also fielded Adhikari’s former loyalist Pabitra Kar to fight against him in Nandigram.Besides, Chandrima Bhattacharya from Dum Dum Uttar seat, Madan Mitra from Kamarhati seat, Firhad Hakim from Kolkata Port seat, Kunal Ghosh from Beleghata seat and Dr Shashi Panja from Shyampukur seat have been fielded.“We will contest from 291 of the 294 seats. The remaining three seats will be contested by our ally, the Darjeeling Darjeeling Party led by Anit Thapa,” Banerjee said while announcing the candidate list.Of the 291 candidates contested by TMC in the West Bengal polls, 52 are women, 95 are from Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe communities and 47 are from minorities.See full listMamata expressed confidence that the TMC will retain power with a comfortable majority in the 2026 assembly elections.“We will win more than 226 seats in the 2026 parliamentary elections,” she asserted.The chief minister also sought to appease party leaders and workers who failed to find a place in the candidate list and said they would be accommodated in the organisation.Earlier on Sunday, the Election Commission announced that the West Bengal Assembly polls will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29.Announcing the polling schedule for four states and one Union Territory, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said that in order to make the elections convenient for all, there is a need to reduce the number of phases.The counting of votes for the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections will take place on May 4, as will the counting of votes in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu. In the 2021 Bengal elections, the Trinamul Congress Party led by Mamata Banerjee won 215 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party became the official opposition party with 77 seats.