West Bengal Assembly polls: Congress names 284 candidates for, fields heavyweights

The Congress on Sunday (March 29, 2026) fielded several heavyweights for the West Bengal Assembly election 2026, including former party leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and former Rajya Sabha MP Mausam Benazir Noor.

The party, which has decided to contest all the 294 seats in the State, announced candidates for 284 of them, effectively ending a decade-long electoral understanding with the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front, which has allied with the Indian Secular Front (ISF).

Mr. Chowdhury, a five-term Congress MP from Behrampore, will contest from the Behrampore Assembly seat in Murshidabad district. Ms. Noor, a former Trinamool Congress MP who made a comeback to Congress in January 2026, has been fielded from the Malatipur constituency in Malda district. She hails from the family of veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury.

The nomination of Mr. Chowdhury and Ms. Noor has made the contest interesting in central West Bengal, particularly in Malda and Murshidabad districts, where the Trinamool Congress is facing pressure from regional players like Humayun Kabir’s Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP). In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool Congress candidate and former cricketer Yusuf Pathan defeated Mr. Chowdhury in Behrampore by a margin of 70,000 votes. The 2026 assembly election is an opportunity for Mr. Chowdhury to re-establish his political dominance in the region.

Other candidates include Rohan Mitra, son of former MP and popular Congress leader Somen Mitra. A general secretary of the State unit, he will contest from Ballygunge. Former MLA Ali Imran Ramz, popularly known as Victor, has been fielded from Uttar Dinajpur’s Chakulia. Mr. Ramz was earlier associated with the All India Forward Bloc.

The party has fielded youth leader Ashutosh Chatterjee from Rashbehari. Congress South Kolkata district president Pradeep Prasad will contest from Bhabanipur, where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Suvendu Adhikari are in the fray. Among other candidates are Mohit Sengupta from Raiganj, Asif Mehboob from Chanchal, Mostaq Alam from Harishchandrapur and Amal Acharya—who recently joined the Congress from the Trinamool Congress—from Itahar. In Nandigram, the party has nominated youth leader Sheikh Zariatul Hossain.

Candidates for 10 seats have not been announced. According to party sources, applications from several MLAs denied tickets by the Trinamool Congress are being scrutinised.

Polling for 152 seats will be held in the first phase on April 23, with nominations beginning on Monday. The second and final phase of polling will be held on April 29.