Voting has started on 152 seats for the first phase of West Bengal Assembly Election 2026. Voting is also going on for 234 seats in Tamil Nadu. In this phase, about 3.6 crore voters will vote at about 44,000 polling stations.

Assembly elections in West Bengal in two phases

west bengal This time, elections are being conducted in only two phases, whereas voting was held in eight phases in 2021 and six phases in 2016. Although the number of phases has reduced, unprecedented arrangements have been made in terms of security and the Election Commission has taken many new steps to follow the strict rules. In the first phase, a direct contest is being considered between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the main opposition BJP on at least 80 seats.

Multi-cornered contest can also be seen on some seats, because Left Front and Congress are in different fields and some religious organizations have also entered. The districts where voting will be held on Thursday include Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, North and South Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Birbhum, West Bardhaman, Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, West and East Midnapore. A total of 1,478 candidates are in the fray in this phase.

Excitement among Tamil people living abroad regarding Tamil Nadu elections

Tamil Nadu is witnessing a rise in the number of people coming from abroad. A large number of Tamil people living abroad are returning to cast their votes. A huge increase in passenger movement has been recorded at Chennai International Airport in the last few days. A large number of NRIs and people living abroad are arriving here from areas like Gulf countries, South-East Asia, Europe and America. Tamil organizations abroad have found that there is a lot of enthusiasm among the people living abroad to participate in the electoral process.