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Elections are going to be held in West Bengal in 2026 amidst the debate of deletion of voter list, Matua unrest, urban anti-incumbency, welfare pressure, jobs and industry disputes, identity politics and infiltration.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. (File/PTI)
As West Bengal prepares for the 2026 assembly elections, a number of political, economic and social issues are expected to dominate the campaign narrative across the state. Political parties are focusing on governance, welfare schemes, law and order, employment and corruption charges while attempting to appeal to voters.
To keep an eye Issues that have occupied campaign center stage for political parties across the board.
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The publication of voter lists after the SIR has led to one of the most significant pre-poll changes in the state in recent years, with the revision removing around 63.66 lakh names from the voter list ahead of the assembly elections. As a result, the number of voters has declined from 7.66 crore to 7.04 crore, significantly changing the electoral landscape of the state and adding a new layer of uncertainty at the start of the campaign season.
The changes have forced parties to re-do their calculations at the booth level, especially in districts where a large number of names have been deleted. The attacks are also concentrated in several border districts and urban areas – areas that are politically sensitive and known for close combat.
matua factor
Matua, a Scheduled Caste Hindu refugee community that has significant influence on nearly 50 assembly seats in West Bengal, has emerged as an important electoral block. In the 2021 assembly elections, the BJP won most of these seats, taking its total to 77, and the party largely retained this support base in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
However, large-scale deletion of names during the SIR process has destabilized voters in Matua-dominated areas, rekindling concerns over identification, documentation and electoral inclusion among members of the community who have migrated from present-day Bangladesh over several decades.
Urban anger/anti-establishment wave
When Kolkata-based sociology researcher Rimjhim Sinha called for a “Reclaim the Night” movement on social media following the rape and murder of a medical intern at RG Kar Hospital in 2024, she could not have anticipated how quickly the message would spread, leading to growing anger against the state’s ruling establishment among urban women, youth and even senior citizens.
This was followed by spontaneous street protests in urban and semi-urban parts of West Bengal that continued for months. The movement demanded justice for victims, stronger workplace safety measures and the right for women to be safe in public places at night. The outpouring of public anger – which was mainly directed at the functioning of state-run institutions under the Trinamool Congress – was unprecedented.
Although the state’s major opposition parties were largely kept out of the protest site by participants, the Trinamool Congress faced increasing difficulty in preventing the social unrest from taking on a more overtly political character.
Against the backdrop of ongoing corruption allegations, a persistent jobs crisis, limited success in attracting large investments and ongoing concerns over brain drain, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee now faces one of the most significant anti-incumbency challenges of her tenure.
social welfare schemes
Several social welfare schemes implemented by the TMC government are expected to play an important role in the upcoming elections. These initiatives targeting unemployed youth, women, farmers, students, workers and marginalized communities have delivered electoral gains in previous elections and may once again influence the outcome.
Many of these programs include direct cash transfers and other benefits delivered at the grassroots level, strengthening their influence among voters.
Industry and Employment
The opposition BJP has alleged an “exodus of industry” from West Bengal and described the state as an “industrial graveyard”. Party leaders claim that more than 6,000 companies have relocated from Bengal in the last 14 years and argue that only 3 per cent of the investment proposals made at business summits in the state have actually materialised, turning the state into a “labour-exporting economy”.
However, the TMC rejects these allegations and highlights what it calls the “Bengal model” of development, which focuses on MSME development, infrastructure expansion and comparatively low unemployment. It cites the unemployment rate, about 3.6 percent lower than the national average, and points to projected GSDP growth of about 12 percent, higher than the national average, as an indicator of continued economic momentum.
Meanwhile, economic stress has emerged as a major concern in the jute belt districts of Hooghly, Howrah and North 24 Parganas. Shortage of raw materials led to mills closure and production cuts, resulting in loss of jobs which has become a significant political issue in the region.
Bengali sub-nationalism
Before the SIR exercise gained political prominence in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had already launched an aggressive campaign against coordinated attacks on Bengali-speaking migrants in BJP-ruled states, on the streets, in Parliament and through legal channels.
The party’s oft-repeated “Bohiragoto” (outsider) narrative against the BJP has proven electorally effective in recent years. The issue of Bengali sub-nationalism, built around alleged migrant oppression, is seen as an extension of TMC’s broader effort to position itself as the protector of Bengali “identity” while politically isolating the BJP in the state.
In July last year, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had led a large rally in Kolkata, which the TMC described as an “attack on Bengali identity” by the BJP. He has consistently criticized the party over incidents of alleged harassment, detention and deportation of Bengali migrants in various parts of the country, often under suspicion of their being Bangladeshi citizens.
TMC has also filed legal challenges in the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court against such alleged deportation of Bengali-speaking Indians, although with limited success. The repatriation of Sunali Bibi and her minor son, among the first six deported persons, has been cited as one of the rare examples of relief achieved through these efforts.
infiltration
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in the Muslim-majority border district of Malda on January 17, he put infiltration at the center of his attack on the TMC government. He alleged that large-scale illegal migration has changed the demography, fueled riots and is continuing due to the “patronage and syndicate raj” of the ruling party, making it clear that the BJP will keep the “infiltrators” issue prominent in its election campaign.
Against the backdrop of the intense pre-poll atmosphere and the controversial SIR “roll-cleansing” exercise, the BJP has strongly defended the process, arguing that it is necessary to identify “Bangladeshis and Rohingyas” living across the border.
During a recent visit, Union Home Minister Amit Shah further toughened the party’s stance on infiltration, saying that currently “only the names of infiltrators are being removed” from the voter lists, but they will be “pushed out” if the party comes to power in the state. He also accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of promoting infiltration for electoral gains.
However, TMC has rejected these allegations, terming the exercise politically motivated and divorced from ground reality and alleging that it is being used to target Muslim citizens in the state.
west bengal elections
Of the 294-member Bengal Assembly, TMC won 215 seats in 2021, four seats more than the 2016 edition of the state elections, while the BJP won 77 seats, improving its tally by 74 seats.
BJP’s strength in the state assembly has now reduced to 64, mainly due to defection in the Trinamool Congress. Indian Secular Front and newly formed Aam Janata Unnayan Party have one seat each. Meanwhile, three seats are vacant in the assembly after the death of sitting MLAs.
April 12, 2026, 11:00 IST
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