By Admin 
Bengal Election 2026: Campaigning for the first phase of West Bengal assembly elections ended on Tuesday, with issues like eating habits, cross-border infiltration, uniform civil code and revised voter list dominating the agenda.
The two major rivals Bharatiya Janata Party and Trinamool Congress made several promises to woo voters ahead of voting in 152 constituencies in North Bengal and several districts in the southern part of the state on April 23.
The number of men and women in the voter list is so much
According to the Election Commission, more than 3.60 crore voters will be able to vote in this phase. These voters include approximately 1.84 crore men, 1.75 crore women and 465 voters of the third gender.
While campaigning for BJP candidates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and several other leaders alleged that the state has witnessed political violence, anarchy and rampant corruption. He claimed that the ruling Trinamool Congress encouraged infiltration for vote bank politics, which led to demographic change.
The reins of the state are in the hands of the people – Amit Shah
Addressing his last rally on Tuesday, Shah said that there is going to be a change of leadership in the state on May 4. Referring to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he said, ‘The time for the reins of the state to be in her hands is now over.’
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Appealing to people to vote without any fear, he said, ‘No one can threaten our voters. The Election Commission has deployed adequate number of central forces, which are spread in every corner of the state.
The Election Commission has deployed a record 2,450 companies of central paramilitary forces, comprising about 2.5 lakh personnel, for the West Bengal Assembly elections.
Over 8,000 polling stations declared ‘highly sensitive’ for first phase
The Election Commission has tightened security arrangements and marked more than 8,000 polling stations as ‘highly sensitive’ for the first phase.
Taking a dig at the BJP, Trinamool leader Abhishek Banerjee said the party has a long history of making ‘false promises’ as it did not fulfill its promise of providing ‘Rs 15 lakh in every bank account and two crore jobs every year’.
Banerjee said, ‘Those who could not fulfill basic promises cannot be trusted to provide welfare benefits.’
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her party will easily return to power in the state and claimed that the BJP-led government at the Center will not be able to survive after 2026.
He criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for saying in a recent rally that he is the BJP’s candidate for all 294 seats in the assembly elections to be held in West Bengal. He said, ‘For this to happen, you will first have to leave the post of Prime Minister.’
Banerjee stressed, ‘This time BJP will not win the elections in West Bengal. Trinamool Congress will form the government again. We will throw out BJP from Delhi also in 2026 itself.
The Commission has identified some districts like Malda, Murshidabad, Uttar Dinajpur, Cooch Behar, Birbhum and Bardhaman as ‘particularly sensitive’ and has kept all constituencies in these areas under strict surveillance.
Central Armed Police Forces have been deployed in large numbers, supported by surveillance teams and 2,193 quick reaction teams, to take immediate action in case of any incident.
Prominent candidates in this phase include opposition leader Subhendu Adhikari (BJP, Nandigram), former Union minister Nisith Pramanik (BJP, Mathabhanga), state ministers Udayan Guha (Trinamool, Dinhata), Gautam Deb (Trinamool, Siliguri) and Adhir Ranjan Choudhary (Congress, Baharampur).
Other prominent candidates contesting in the first phase include former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh against Trinamool’s Pradeep Sarkar from Kharagpur Sadar seat in Paschim Medinipur district.
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