By Admin 
West Bengal First Phase Election 2026: The election noise of the first phase of assembly elections in West Bengal has stopped. Now voting will be held on 152 seats in the state on April 23. In such a situation, BJP and TMC have campaigned vigorously in the state. On one hand, Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee maintained the electoral front, while on the other hand, BJP put all its strength in this election. Many prominent leaders including PM Modi and Amit Shah arrived for campaigning and election rallies.
This will be the first vote when the women’s reservation bill brought by BJP failed in the House. Before this, elections had been held 17 times in Bihar. This is the 18th election of the state.
Till now 3.60 crore voters will decide the fate of about 1,478 candidates. CM Mamata Banerjee is aiming to create a record by coming to power for the fourth consecutive time. This election is also an election to save his political legacy.
In recent years, BJP’s support base has increased in Bengal. However, it has never been able to cross the majority mark. In 2021, BJP had won 77 seats. This time elections will be held in two phases in the state. This time the election is between BJP and TMC. In this, Congress and Communists are contesting elections together.
The first phase of elections is being held in North Bengal and the border districts. Infiltration, identity and tribal political issues dominate it. Keeping in view the delicacy of the elections, security has been kept tight. Besides, thousands of booths have been identified as sensitive and highly sensitive booths. Heavy deployment of central forces and strict surveillance system is in place. Apart from this, Lakshmi Bhandar election schemes can influence this election. This time the election campaign was dominated by issues like deleted names, citizenship, foreigners, infiltrators and fake voters.
(These 10 main issues dominated this election campaign…)
Debate on ‘removed names’ and citizenship
This time the election campaign revolved around the issue of deletion of names from the voter list. TMC alleges that the disappearance of names is a threat to citizenship. BJP is calling it a process of removing wrongly created voters.
Controversy over SIR
SIR is a big political issue in this election. Under this process, the Election Commission has removed the names of 91 lakh voters from the state. Names of 27 lakh voters are in the category of logical discrepancy. TMC alleges that real voters are being targeted. BJP says that this is cleaning of voter list.
Controversy over women’s reservation bill
The issue of 33% reservation for women not being implemented in Parliament by 2029 is an issue. Mamata Banerjee says that BJP has linked it to delimitation, and has called it a divisive move. At the same time, PM Narendra Modi has accused TMC of hindering the empowerment of women.
Alien/Infiltrator/Citizenship Narrative
BJP is raising the issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and infiltrators. Whereas TMC says that such rhetoric targets minorities and Bengali identity.
ED raids and I-PAC controversy
The swift action of ED has affected the election campaign this time. The action taken on I-PAC disrupted the election campaign work. This company makes the election strategy of Mamata Banerjee. TSMI has called it an action taken out of political vendetta. Whereas BJP has called it an action against corruption.
Food politics ‘fish vs vegetarian’
Bhaat fish is a symbolic cultural issue in the state. TMC claims that BJP can ban fish, meat and eggs (which are main parts of Bengali food). To overcome this fear, BJP is campaigning with fish.
PM’s jhalmuri moment
The video of PM Modi eating Jhalmuri after the Jhargram rally has won the hearts of the people of the state. This has proved to be the viral footage of this election. TMC has called it a political show and drama.
Narrative of outsider vs bhadralok
Here, on one hand TMC is calling BJP an outsider. So BJP is responding to this under national unity.
Border infiltration and population change
In this election, BJP has raised the issue of infiltration and change in population. This is the main election issue of BJP. BJP claims that there has been a change in population due to infiltration. Also, TMC is calling it politics of fear.
Welfare schemes vs identity politics
On one hand, TMC is presenting its government schemes in front of the public, while this time BJP is in the election field with the issue of Sonar Bangla.
TMC is in power since 2011
Last time there was tremendous voting in West Bengal. A total of 83.18% voting took place. Trinamool Congress is in power in the state since 2011. Mamata Banerjee is trying to come to power for a record fourth time. The contest has become extremely tough due to BJP’s focus on identity issues, governance concerns and anti-incumbency wave.
What is the situation at the seats where voting is to be held?
If we look at the seats in the first phase in West Bengal, TMC has 92 seats, while BJP has 59 seats. One of them is an independent. About 3.6 crore voters will cast their votes in the first phase. Of these, 1.84 are male voters, while 1.75 crore are female voters.
TMC has 149 candidates on these seats, while BJP has 152 candidates. Whereas Congress has 151 candidates. CPM has fielded candidates on 98 seats. 13 candidates of CPI and 9 candidates of AIMIM are in the election fray.
These seats will be monitored
- In this election, BJP is contesting against Suvendu Adhikari of TMC from Nandigram assembly seat of East Medinipur. The officer is a vocal opponent of Mamata Banerjee. Apart from this, BJP has fielded Dilip Ghosh from Kharagpur Sadar in Dakshin Medinipur. Here Pradeep Sarkar has entered the fray on behalf of TMC.
- Adhir Ranjan Choudhary of Congress is contesting from Baharampur seat of Murshidabad in Bengal. Here TMC’s Naru Gopal Mukherjee is in the electoral fray. Also, BJP’s Nishidh is in the electoral fray from Mathabhanga in Cooch Behar. He is contesting against TMC’s Sablu Burman.
- BJP has fielded Agnimitra Paul from Asansol South in West Bardhaman. Here Tapas Banerjee is contesting the elections on TMC ticket. TMC’s Udayan Guha is in the electoral fray in Dinhata, Cooch Behar. Here BJP has fielded Ajay Rai in the elections. TMC’s Biplab Mitra is contesting from Debabrata Majumdar from Harirampur. Apart from this, TMC has fielded Zakir Hussain from Jangipur seat of Murshidabad. BJP has given ticket to Chitta Mukherjee from here.
- BJP’s Ashok Dinda is contesting from Moyna’s Purba Medinipur seat. Whereas TM C Chandan Mandal is contesting the elections. TMC has given ticket to Dr. Humayun Kabir on Dokmal seat of Murshidabad. In front of him is Nandulal Pal of BJP. This is not Humayun Kabir of Babri Masjid.
- Humayun Kabir of Aam Janata Unnayan Party is in the electoral fray from Reznigar Assembly constituency of Murshidabad. Here he is in direct competition with Ataur Rehman of TMC. Apart from this, Humayun Kabir is also contesting from Nauda seat.
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