West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026: The first phase of assembly elections in West Bengal has been completed on Thursday (April 23, 2026) with a historic voter turnout. Election Commission Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar said that the highest voting participation has been recorded in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal (Phase-1) since independence. According to the Election Commission, people have voted without fear and the Commission salutes every voter of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

According to Election Commission data, for the first time after independence, 92.68% voting turnout has been recorded in West Bengal. More than 3 crore 60 lakh voters from 16 districts of the state have exercised their franchise in the first phase of elections, in which the number of male voters is more than 1.84 crore, the number of women voters is more than 1.76 crore and the number of third gender voters is 465. Among the 16 districts of Bengal, the highest vote turnout has been recorded in Cooch Behar district, 95.53 percent.

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What was the voter turnout figure in 16 districts?

According to the data released in the Election Commission’s Voter Turnout App till 10 pm, the total voter turnout percentage in the first phase of West Bengal Assembly elections was recorded at 92.68 percent. Whereas, if we talk district wise, Alipurduar – 92.03%, Bankura – 91.94%, Birbhum – 94.42%, Cooch Behar – 95.53%, South Dinajpur – 95.37%, Darjeeling – 88.68%, Jalpaiguri – 94.38%, Jhargram – 92.11%, Kalimpong – 83.01%, Malda – 93.81%, Murshidabad – 93.48%, Paschim Bardhaman – 90.26%, Paschim Medinipur – 92.10%, Purba Medinipur – 90.85%, Purulia – 90.61% and North Dinajpur recorded 93.89% vote turnout. Suvendu Sarkar was also beaten up during voting in South Dinajpur.

People voted without fear: ceo Manoj Kumar Aggarwal

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal Manoj Kumar Aggarwal said that the first phase of Bengal Assembly elections has been completed today. In this, voting took place in 45 thousand polling centers for 152 assembly seats. EVMs are being sealed and will be sent to the strong room.

He said that the people of the state voted without any fear this time. I have received reports that the voters of the state were very happy with the arrangements made by the Commission. Now the next phase of voting for the remaining 142 assembly seats of West Bengal will be conducted on Wednesday next week (April 29, 2026) and after that the counting of votes and the results will be announced on May 4, 2026.

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