A Legislative Assembly election was held in 2016 for the 294 seats (out of 295 seats) of the '' Vidhan Sabha'' (Vidhān Sabhā) in the state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the four ...

in India. The

All India Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress ( English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cu ...

under

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal since 20 May 2011, the first woman to hold the office. Having served many times as a Un ...

won 211 seats, and thus was reelected with an enhanced majority. Like in the 2011 election, the poll was held in six phases, with the first phase divided into two days. The first phase was held in Naxalite-Maoist affected Red corridor areas with two polling dates: 4 April and 11 April. The other phases were held on 17, 21, 25, 30 April and 5 May. The result of the election was declared on 19 May. In the previous election in 2011, the All India Trinamool Congress in a coalition with INC won a majority and ended the 34-year rule of the Left Front government.

Background

In the previous assembly election in 2011, the

, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, won a majority and ended the 34-year rule of the Left Front government. During 2011 election, the main theme of TMC was ''paribartan'' (meaning "change"), implying it was time to change the Left Front reign of 34-years in the state. However, during the five year rule of TMC, urban population, in particular, were in general unhappy with the changes made by the government. Also, newspapers reported that chief minister Banerjee has been only trying to consolidate votes from the sizable Muslim minority. In January 2016, the Election Commission of India urged the central government to allow it to carry out a limited delimitation exercise in West Bengal to ensure voting rights to people who came to India following the exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh. As per updated voter list for the year 2016 published by the Election Commission of India in January 2016, West Bengal has surpassed the rest of the country in elector-population ratio with 0.68. The final electoral roll in West Bengal for 2016 with 6.55 crore voters has 3.39 crore male and 3.16 crore female voters.

Major issues

Prior to the West Bengal elections, on 3 January 2016, a mob turned violent and vandalised Kaliachak Police station, block development office and public property in Kaliachak, Malda district. Mamata Banerjee's government was severely criticised for not handling the situation better. The Saradha Group financial scandal, the Narada Sting operation (which showcased the ministers of the ruling party of accepting bribes), lack of any major industrial investments, and law & order issue surfaced as major issues and proved to be an acid test for Trinamool Congress. The Kolkata flyover collapse also happened during the poll process.

Schedule

Assembly elections in West Bengal are to be held in phases from 4 April to 5 May 2016.

Election dates by constituency

On 4 March 2016,

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, dir ...

announced that 22 assembly constituencies in West Bengal would have Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines attached along with EVMs. Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines were to be in place in more than 5,993 polling stations.

Candidates and Contesting Parties

Candidates

AITC AITC may refer to: * All India Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West B ...

released its candidate list on 5 March, the same day the elections were announced. On 10 March, BJP released its first candidate list of 52 members. Left Front consisting of

CPI(M) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the nat ...

, CPI, RSP and All India Forward Bloc along with INC (Congress) (who were on an Electoral agreement with the Left Front) released their respective candidate list in several rounds after consultations and bargaining.

Contesting Parties

; Trinamool Congress+ *

(AITC) * Jana Andolan Party ; Mahajot ( Left Front +

United Progressive Alliance United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is a centre-left political alliance of predominantly left-leaning political parties in India. It was formed after the 2004 general election with support from left-leaning political parties when no single par ...

) *

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...

(CPIM) * Communist Party of India (CPI) * Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) * All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) * Revolutionary Communist Party of India (RCPI) * Marxist Forward Bloc (MFB) * Democratic Socialist Party (DSP(PC)) *

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...

(INC) * Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) * Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) * Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) *

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party ...

(NCP) * Communist Party of Bharat (CPB) *Bharat Nirman Party (Led by

Lakshman Chandra Seth Lakshman Chandra Seth (born 11 April 1946), commonly known as Lakshman Seth, is an Indian politician from Tamluk, West Bengal, India. He was a West Bengal state committee member of the CPI(M) and is a former MP from Haldia. He was expelled f ...

) *Save Democracy Forum *

Independent Candidate An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views th ...

;

National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a centre-right to right-wing and conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was founded in 1998 and currently controls the government of India ...

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

(BJP) * Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)

Alliance(s)

Following the heavy defeats in the 2011 Assembly elections and the 2014 Indian General Election, the

welcomed ideas of the alliance even with parties not conforming to the communist ideology in general. The first signs came in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation election in 2015, when the

made some local understanding with

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

to keep TMC and BJP out of power; resulting in CPI(M) leader

Ashok Bhattacharya Ashok Bhattacharya is an Indian politician and the former mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation. He is a member of Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)). He is a prominent leader of CPI(M) in the northern region of West Bengal. He was t ...

being appointed as the

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...

of Siliguri. This success then got popularity as 'Siliguri Model'. After the success of the model, in the long run, some Congress and CPI(M) leaders advocated for a Left-Congress alliance. This gradually materialized into "Alliance" between INC and Left Front in all the seats except a few in Murshidabad and Maldah. After much dispute and secession of

SUCI(C) The Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) or SUCI(C), previously called the Socialist Unity Centre of India and "Socialist Unity Centre", is an anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist communist party in India. The party was founded by Shibda ...

and CPI(ML) from the Left Front, both Congress and Lefts formed an understanding basis of what they called "seat-sharing", strongly objecting to the use of the word-"alliance". On the other hand, the ruling

announced its candidate list for all the 294 seats, as they were fighting alone this time. But after the announcement, the candidate from Kalimpong and former Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader, Harka Bahadur Chettri, stated that he will fight as an Independent candidate under the entity of his newly formed political party, Jana Andolan Party, and will be supported by the Trinamool Congress. The BJP announced its candidate list for 291 seats in several phases, leaving 3 seats of the Darjeeling Hills for their allies, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

Voting

79.22% voting was recorded in the third phase of West Bengal polls held on 21 April 2016. 79.51% voting was recorded in second phase of West Bengal polls.

Surveys and polls

Exit poll

Result

Results by Parties

The election results were announced along with other four state assemblies on 19 May 2016.

won 211 seats, and thus was reelected with an enhanced majority. They also became the first ruling party to win without an ally since 1962 in West Bengal.

! colspan="2" rowspan="2" , Parties and coalitions ! colspan="3" , Popular vote ! colspan="3" , Seats , - valign="top" ! Votes !%, , ± pp, , Contested , , Won , , +/− , - , ,

(AITC) , , 24,564,523 , 44.91 , 5.98, , 293 , , 211 , , , - , ,

(CPM) , , 10,802,058 , 19.75, , , , 148, , 26 , , 14 , - , ,

(INC) , 6,700,938 , 12.25, , , 3.15, , 92, , 44 , , 2 , - , ,

(BJP) , , 5,555,134 , 10.16, , 5.56, , 291, , 3 , , 3 , - , , All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) , 1,543,764 , 2.82 , 1.98 , 25 , 2 , 9 , - , , Independents (IND), , 1,184,047 , 2.16, , 0.97, , 371 , 1 , , 1 , - , , Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) , 911,004 , 1.67 , 1.33 , 19 , 3 , 4 , - , , Communist Party of India (CPI) , 791,925 , 1.45 , 0.35 , 11 , 1 , 1 , - , , Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), , 365,996 , 0.67, , 0.23, , 182 , 0 , , 1 , - , , Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GOJAM) , 254,626 , 0.47 , 0.25 , 5 , 3 , , - , , Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) , 167,576 , 0.31 , 0.04 , 2 , 0 , 1 , - , ,

(NCP) , 69,898 , 0.13 , 0.10 , 1 , 0 , , - , ,

Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; translation: ''Socialist Party'', founded 4 October 1992) is a socialist political party in India, headquartered in New Delhi but mainly based in Uttar Pradesh, with significant presence in other states as well. With ...

(SP) , 46,402 , 0.08 , 0.66 , 23 , 0 , 1 , - , , Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) , 15,439 , 0.03 , 0.02 , 1 , 0 , , - , ,

None of the Above "None of the above" (NOTA), or none for short, also known as "against all" or a "scratch" vote, is a ballot option in some jurisdictions or organizations, designed to allow the voter to indicate disapproval of the candidates in a voting syst ...

(NOTA) , 831,848 , 1.52 , 1.52 , colspan="3" bgcolor="#E9E9E9" , , - , - class="unsortable" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! colspan="9" , , - , colspan="2" , Total, , 54,697,791 , 100.0 , bgcolor="#E9E9E9" , , 2255 , 294 , , ±0 , - ! colspan="9" , , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Valid votes , align="right" , 54,697,791 , align="right" , 99.92 , colspan="4" rowspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Invalid votes , align="right" , 44,622 , align="right" , 0.08 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Votes cast / turnout , align="right" , 54,742,413 , align="right" , 83.02 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Abstentions , align="right" , 11,196,593 , align="right" , 16.98 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Registered voters , align="right" , 65,939,006 , colspan="1" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , -

Results by District Wise

Results by Constituency

References

External links

West Bangal General Legislative Election Results
at the ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:West Bengal State Assembly Election, 2016 2016 State Assembly elections in India 2016 2010s in West Bengal April 2016 events in India May 2016 events in India