Some numbers tell the story behind Mamata Banerjee’s selection of candidates for the Bengal Assembly election 2026, to be held on April 23 and 29.
The chief minister will be contesting from her home turf of Bhowanipore against her bête noire, leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari.
Mamata, flanked by the party’s general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and long-time confidant Subrata Bakshi, announced the candidates for 291 of the 294 Assembly seats in Bengal. Like in 2021, three of the hill seats have been left for Anit Thapa’s Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha.
Here’s a look at some revealing numbers:
MLAs re-nominated
A total of 135 or 60 per cent of the Trinamool’s 224 MLAs will be contesting again in the Assembly polls from their seats; 15 other MLAs have had their constituencies changed.
A total of 74 MLAs in the outgoing Assembly have been dropped.
According to Trinamool insiders, Mamata looked at the anti-incumbency factor while going through the list of the names of sitting MLAs. Feedback from her political consultants, I-PAC, was that despite the “good performance” of the government in welfare schemes there was umbrage against the MLAs in their constituencies.
A closer look at the list reveals that the party seems to have observed anti-incumbency only in the districts.
Mamata has kept her core team intact, meaning the leaders like Aroop Biswas, Firhad Hakim, the veteran Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi Chatterjee, Indraneel Sen and Shashi Panja.
According to sources she had made it clear that these leaders cannot be dropped under any circumstances.
Trinamool insiders say disturbing the core team could have gone against the party's interests.
Abhishek imprint on candidates
Trinamool insiders said that Abhishek in his meetings with the party leaders and functionaries in Calcutta and the districts had made clear performance would be the key to selection.
“He was categorical that non-performing assets will not be given tickets. He has repeatedly said proximity to leader or Trinamool Bhawan was not among the criteria. He emphasised on the need for new faces,” said a Trinamool source.
Focus on youth
In the list of 291 Trinamool candidates, around 126 are between the ages of 31 and 50.
Thirty candidates are in the age group of 31-40, while 88 are between 41 and 50 years of age.
“Mamata di has always said she wants to keep at least two generations of leaders ready,” said a Trinamool MP. “The CPM when it was in power did not prepare the next generation of leaders. Mamata di does not want to make the same mistake.”
Among the new faces, Mamata has fielded sons of outgoing MLAs Nirmal Ghosh and Swarna Kamal Saha in the seats of Panihati and Entally.
Eye on the marginalised
The Trinamool has fielded 78 candidates from the Scheduled Castes, 17 from the Scheduled Tribes and 47 from the minority communities.
Eleven of the SC/ST candidates have been fielded from non-reserved seats. The move is a continuation of what Mamata had started in 2021.
The Trinamool list of 2021 had 79 SC candidates, 17 ST and 42 minority community candidates.
The number of women candidates has gone up to 52 from the previous election’s 50, keeping in mind Mamata’s thrust on women leadership and also her government’s schemes targeting women voters.
Larger Trinamool family
Former journalist Devadeep Purohit will take the plunge into electoral politics from North 24-Parganas’ Khardaha. Former Rajya Sabha MP and journalist Kunal Ghosh is in the fray from Beleghata.
Though actor Kanchan Mullick and writer Manoranjan Byapari are among the list of dropped MLAs, Mamata continued with her faith on actors Soham Chakraborty (shifted to Nadia’s Karimpur from East Midnapore’s Chanditala), Sayantika Banerjee and Arundhati Maitra, and filmmaker Raj Chakraborty.
While ex-footballer Bidesh Bose has been retained (though shifted to another constituency), newcomer and Asian gold medallist Swapna Barman has been fielded from Rajganj in Jalpaiguri.
Another new face is former cricketer Shib Shankar Paul from Tufangunj in Cooch Behar.
Former IPS officer Prasun Banerjee, who had contested unsuccessfully in the last Lok Sabha polls, has been nominated from Malda’s Chanchal.
The north
In the 2021 Assembly election, the BJP had managed to retain its stronghold in the northern part of Bengal barring a few seats. The Trinamool has picked up around 29 new faces in these seats where the BJP remains formidable.