The Endgame for Mamata Banerjee in 2026: A 226 Target and Kolkata’s Dare for Former Aide

In the 2019 Assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will face her lieutenant-turned-arch rival, BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, in the Bhabanipur constituency of south Kolkata. This election season, it will be a titanic contest. 

The names of 291 candidates for the two-phase election scheduled for April 23 and April 29 were revealed by Banerjee and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, general secretary of the Trinamool. As part of an agreement with the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha, she claimed, Trinamool will not run for three Darjeeling seats.

Interestingly, Mamata Banerjee won’t contest from the Nandigram seat in Purba Medinipur district, where she lost to Adhikari last time. Trinamool has fielded Pabitra Kar, a close aide of Adhikari who recently switched to Banerjee’s party, in Nandigram. 

The BJP yesterday announced its first list of 144 candidates. Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, is fighting on two seats — Nandigram and Bhabanipur. This is significant. While the BJP has not officially named a Chief Minister candidate for the Bengal polls, fielding Adhikari in two seats is an endorsement of his leadership in the poll campaign. This shows the party leadership’s trust in Adhikari, who was once Banerjee’s trusted aide and considered the unofficial Number 2 in the Trinamool Congress.

Adhikari’s home ground is Nandigram. However, Mamata Banerjee has openly challenged to field him in Bhabanipur. For many years, the head of the Trinamool Congress has controlled the electoral landscape in South Kolkata. Mamata Banerjee won the South Kolkata Lok Sabha seat six times in a row before she was appointed Chief Minister and left the position.

As soon as the model code of conduct went into effect, Banerjee attacked the Election Commission harshly over the transfers of the state’s senior administrative and police officers before revealing the names of Trinamool’s poll candidates. Banerjee questioned the poll body’s haste and claimed that the Election Commission’s designated officers were selected at BJP offices.

“As the Prime Minister says, chun chun ke liya,” she said, accusing the Election Commission of picking officers in collusion with the BJP.

Without naming Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, she said, “Why are you acting from behind the clouds?” and dared him to join the BJP campaign. She alleged that the new officers have been chosen to help the BJP move cash and arms in the run-up to the polls. 

Banerjee said the Trinamool Congress will win 226 seats in the upcoming election, 11 more than its 2021 score of 215. “I tell the BJP, why are you so scared? Without misusing agencies and bringing people from outside, let’s fight politically.”

The Chief Minister reassured party leaders and workers who could not make it to the candidate list. “All those who could not be accommodated in the candidate list will be accommodated in the organisation,” she said.

She said this is a fight for Bengal’s existence. “Bengal and its Maa, Mati, Manush will win. Delhi’s laddoo won’t. You have taken all our powers, but you cannot take our manpower. Remember, people cast votes,” she said.