Explained: This article explains the political background, key decisions, and possible outcomes related to Explained : West Bengal polls 2026: BJP releases 1st list of 144 candidates and Its Impact and why it matters right now.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday, March 16, released its first list of candidates for 144 seats in the upcoming Assembly election in West Bengal.

According to the released list, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari has been fielded from the two constituencies — Nandigram and Bhabanipur.

The Bhabanipur seat is currently represented by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Meanwhile, former MP and state president Dilip Ghosh will contest the elections from Kharagpur Sadar.

Swapan Dasgupta, a former Rajya Sabha MP who ran unsuccessfully in the 2021 assembly elections from Tarakeswar, has been nominated again, this time from the Rashbehari constituency in Kolkata.

In West Bengal, the elections are scheduled to take place in two phases on April 23 and 29, while the results will be announced on May 4.

Earlier, in 2021, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 215 seats, while the BJP finished a distant second with 77 seats to become the opposition.

West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026: BJP Candidate’s List

S. no. Assembly Constituency Number and Name Name of the candidate
1. 3 Coochbehar Uttar (SC) Sukumar Roy
2. 5 Sitalkuchi (SC) Savitri Barman
3. 7 Dinhata   Ajay Roy
4. 9 Tufanganj    Malati Rava Roy
5. 10 Kumargram (ST)   Manoj Kumar Oraon
6. 11 Kalchini (ST)   Bishal Lama
7. 12 Alipurduars   Paritosh Das
8. 13 Falakata (SC)   Deepak Barman
9. 19 Dabgram-Phulbari    Sikha Chatterjee
10. 21 Nagrakata (ST)   Puna Bhengra
11. 25 Matigara-Naxalbari (SC)   Anandamay Barman
12. 26 Siliguri Dr. Shankar Ghosh
13. 27 Phansidewa (ST)   Durga Murmu
14. 30 Goalpokhar   Sarjit Biswas
15. 31 Chakulia   Manoj Jain
16. 32 Karandighi Adv. Biraj Biswas
17. 34 Kaliaganj (SC)   Utpal Maharaj
18. 35 Raiganj   Kaushik Chowdhury
19. 37 Kushmandi (SC)   Tapas Chandra Roy
20. 38 Kumarganj   Suvendu Sarkar
21. 39 Balurghat   Bidyut Roy
22. 40 Tapan (ST)   Budhrai Tudu
23. 41 Gangarampur (SC)   Satyendra Nath Rai
24. 42 Harirampur   Debabrata Majumder
25. 43 Habibpur (ST)   Joyel Murmu
26. 44 Gazole (SC)   Chinmoy Deb Barman
27. 45 Chanchal   Ratan Das
28. 47 Malatipur   Ashish Das
29. 48 Ratua   Abhishek Singhania
30. 49 Manikchak   Gaur Chandra Mandal
31. 50 Maldaha (SC)   Gopal Chandra Saha
32. 52 Mothabari   Nibaran Ghosh
33. 53 Sujapur   Abhiraj Chaudhary
34. 57 Suti   Mahabir Ghosh
35. 59 Raghunathganj   Surjit Poddar
36. 61 Lalgola   Amar Kumar Das
37. 62 Bhagawangola   Bhaskar Sarkar
38. 64 Murshidabad   Gouri Sankar Ghosh
39. 70 Rejinagar   Bapan Ghosh
40. 71 Beldanga   Bharat Kumar Jhawar
41. 72 Baharampur   Subrata Maitra
42. 73 Hariharpara   Tanmoy Biswas
43. 74 Nowda   Rana Mandal
44. 75 Domkal   Nanda Dulal Pal
45. 76 Jalangi   Naba Kumar Sarkar
46. 77 Karimpur   Samarendranath Ghosh
47. 79 Palashipara    Anima Dutta
48. 80 Kaliganj   Bapan Ghosh
49. 87 Ranaghat Uttar Paschim   Parthasarathi Chatterjee
50. 89 Ranaghat Uttar Purba (SC)   Ashim Biswas
51. 91 Chakdaha   Bankim Chandra Ghosh
52. 93 Haringhata (SC)   Asim Kumar Sarkar
53. 99 Baduria   Sukriti Sarkar
54. 102 Amdanga   Arindam Dey
55. 104 Naihati   Sumitro Chaterjee
56. 105 Bhatpara   Pawan Kumar Singh
57. 113 Baranagar   Sajal Ghosh
58. 120 Deganga   Tarun Kanti Ghosh
59. 125 Basirhat Uttar   Narayan Chandra Mondal
60. 128 Basanti (SC)   Bikash Sardar
61. 129 Kultali (SC) Madhabi Mahalder
62. 130 Patharpratima   Asit Kumar Haldar
63. 131 Kakdwip   Deepankar Jana
64. 134 Raidighi   Palash Rana
65. 139 Canning Purba   Ashim Sapui
66. 143 Diamond Harbour   Dipak Kumar Halder
67. 146 Bishnupur (SC)   Agniswar Naskar
68. 156 Budge Budge Dr Tarun Kumar Adak
69. 157 Metiaburuz   Veer Bahadur Singh
70. 159 Bhabanipur   Suvendu Adhikari
71. 160 Rashbehari   Swapan Das Gupta
72. 170 Howrah Uttar   Umesh Rai
73. 172 Shibpur   Rudranil Ghosh
74. 178 Uluberia Dakshin Swami Mangalanand Puri Maharaj
75. 181 Amta   Amit Samanta
76. 184 Domjur   Gobinda Hazra
77. 193 Saptagram   Swaraj Ghosh
78. 198 Tarakeswar   Santu Pan
79. 199 Pursurah   Biman Ghosh
80. 200 Arambag (SC)   Hemanta Bag
81. 201 Goghat (SC)   Prashanta Dighar
82. 202 Khanakul   Susanta Ghosh
83. 204 Panskura Purba   Subrata Maity
84. 205 Panskura Paschim   Sintu Senapati
85. 206 Moyna   Ashok Dinda
86. 208 Mahisadal   Subhash Panja
87. 209 Haldia (SC)   Pradip Kumar Bijoli
88. 210 Nandigram   Suvendu Adhikari
89. 212 Patashpur   Tapan Maity
90. 213 Kanthi Uttar    Sumita Sinha
91. 216 Kanthi Dakshin   Arup Kumar Das
92. 217 Ramnagar   Chandra Sekhar Mondal
93. 219 Dantan   Ajit Kumar Jana
94. 220 Nayagram (ST)   Amiya Kisku
95. 221 Gopiballavpur   Rajesh Mahto
96. 222 Jhargram   Lakshmikant Sahu
97. 223 Keshiary (ST)   Bhadra Hembrem
98. 224 Kharagpur Sadar   Dilip Ghosh
99. 225 Narayangarh   Rama Prasad Giri
100. 226 Sabang   Amal Panda
101. 228 Kharagpur   Tapan Bhuya
102. 229 Debra   Shubhashish Om
103. 230 Daspur   Tapan Dutta
104. 231 Ghatal (SC)   Sital Kapat
105. 232 Chandrakona (SC)   Sukanta Dolui
106. 234 Salboni   Biman Mahto
107. 235 Keshpur (SC)   Suvendu Samanta
108. 237 Binpur (ST) Dr. Pranat Tudu
109. 238 Bandwan (ST)   Labsen Baske
110. 239 Balarampur   Jaladhar Mahto
111. 243 Manbazar (ST)    Moyna Murmu
112. 244 Kashipur   Kamalkanta Hansda
113. 245 Para (SC)   Nadiar Chand Bauri
114. 246 Raghunathpur (SC)    Mamoni Bauri
115. 247 Saltora (SC)    Chandana Bauri
116. 248 Chhatna   Satyanarayan Mukhopadhyay
117. 249 Ranibandh (ST)   Kshudiram Tudu
118. 250 Raipur (ST)   Kshetra Mohan Hansda
119. 251 Taldangra   Souvik Patra
120. 253 Barjora   Billeshwar Singha
121. 254 Onda   Amarnath Shakha
122. 256 Katulpur (SC)   Laxmikanta Majumdar
123. 257 Indus (SC)   Nirmal Kumar Dhara
124. 258 Sonamukhi (SC)   Dibakar Gharami
125. 261 Raina (SC)   Subhash Patra
126. 262 Jamalpur (SC)   Arun Halder
127. 263 Monteswar   Saikat Panja
128. 266 Bardhaman Uttar (SC)   Sanjay Das
129. 267 Bhatar   Soumen Karfa
130. 271 Ketugram   Anadi Ghosh (Mathura)
131. 273 Ausgram (SC)    Kalita Maji
132. 275 Pandabeswar   Jitendra Kumar Tewari
133. 276 Durgapur Purba   Chandra Shekhar Banerjee
134. 277 Durgapur Paschim   Lakshman Chandra Ghorui
135. 279 Jamuria Dr. Bijan Mukherjee
136. 280 Asansol Dakshin    Agnimitra Paul
137. 281 Asansol Uttar   Krishnendu Mukherjee
138. 282 Kulti   Ajay Kumar Poddar
139. 284 Dubrajpur (SC)   Anup Kumar Saha
140. 285 Suri   Jagannath Chattopadhyay
141. 286 Bolpur   Dilip Kumar Ghosh
142. 287 Nanoor (SC)   Khokan Das
143. 290 Mayureswar   Dudh Kumar Mondal
144. 292 Hansan   Nikhil Banerjee

West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026: Important Dates

The West Bengal Election 2026 will be held in two phases. Check out the important dates here:

Phase 1 (152 seats, 16 districts)

Date of Issue of Gazette Notification: March 30, 2026.

Last Date of Nominations: April 6, 2026.

Date for Scrutiny of Nominations: April 7, 2026.

Last Date for Withdrawal of candidatures: April 9, 2026.

Date of Poll: April 23, 2026.

Date of Counting: May 4, 2026.

Phase 2 (142 seats, 7 districts)

Date of Issue of Gazette Notification: April 2, 2026.

Last Date of Nominations: April 9, 2026.

Date for Scrutiny of Nominations: April 10, 2026.

Last Date for Withdrawal of candidatures: April 13, 2026.

Date of Poll: April 29, 2026.

Date of Counting: May 4, 2026.