The final phase of the keenly-watched West Bengal Assembly elections on 142 seats will on Wednesday test the fate of around 1,448 candidates, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee — engaged in the mother of all elections with BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, who in 2021 Assembly elections had defeated her in Nandigram, her bastion.
This time Bhabanipur is the constituency to watch out for. Adhikari, who contested from Nandigram in the first phase, is again contesting against Banerjee, this time in Bhabanipur, in the second phase. In those terms, therefore, Bhabanipur is being seen as symbolic of the battleground that West Bengal has become in these 2026 elections, closely tied to the political future of both Banerjee and Adikari, once her most trusted close aide.
It is a battle of egos for two former colleagues. A victory for Banerjee will reaffirm her dominance. A win for Adhikari will carry multiple political implications, shaping his political career as also the broader narrative of the BJP in the state.
In fact, the second phase is the most critical phase for both the ruling TMC and the BJP. It includes 111 seats in the Presidency region — covering Kolkata, Howrah, Nadia, North 24 Parganas, and South 24 Parganas — often regarded as the state’s political, economic, and cultural hub. This is from where the TMC won around 96 in the 2021 polls But this time the ruling party candidates are facing tough contests from the BJP and the Left Front.
Multiple TMC cabinet colleagues are fighting to retain their seats in this phase. The BJP candidates also include Ratna Debnath — the mother of the woman doctor who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Hospital two years ago—in Panihati constituency. Indian Secular Front’s (ISF) Nawsad Siddique, the only non-BJP opposition MLA in the state Assembly, is contesting from the Bhangar seat in South 24 Parganas.
The other two districts going to polls in this phase are the rural Purba Bardhaman with 16 seats and Hooghly with 18 seats, which comprise both urban and rural areas. These regions also overwhelmingly voted for the TMC in 2021.
Both the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, and the TMC led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, aggressively campaigned across the state in an aggressive battle of wits, optics, perceptions and strategy.
By Wednesday evening, the fate of the incumbent and the Trinamool Congress, its main challenger BJP and side players, including Congress and Left parties, would have been sealed in ballot boxes to be opened on 4 May—the counting day
The deletion of electors during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), women’s safety, welfare schemes of the Banerjee-led government, Matua citizenship, agrarian distress, and 15 years of anti-incumbency against the ruling Trinamool will help decide their fate. Incidentally, the 11 Assembly seats in Kolkata are among those which saw the highest number of deletions in the SIR.