2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election

Outlined in Article 168 of the Constitution of India, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly is the only house of the unicameral legislature of West Bengal, not a permanent body, and subject to dissolution.^[6] The assembly term lasts for five years unless it is dissolved earlier. Members of the Legislative Assembly are directly elected by the people, and the tenure of the Sixteenth West Bengal Legislative Assembly was scheduled to end on 30 May 2021.^[7]

In the 2016 election, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC or TMC) retained its majority in the Legislative Assembly with 211 seats. The Indian National Congress won 44 seats and the Left Front won 33 seats from their alliance, while the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha won 3 seats each out of the total 294 seats.^[8]

Since the by-elections held for the Kanthi South seat in 2017, it became evident that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had overtaken the Left Front as the primary opposition party in the state.^[9] According to various political analysts, the shifting of the Left Front and other opposition voters towards the BJP caused the party's vote share to significantly increase.^[10][11] In spite of widespread violence, the BJP emerged as the second largest party in the 2018 elections to the state panchayats mainly due to the shifting of the Left Front's voter base. The long-held stereotype of Bengali Hindus being averse to right-wing politics was shattered when the BJP won the 2018 assembly elections in Tripura, another Indian state with a Bengali Hindu majority, ruled till then by CPI(M)-led alliance of Communist parties since 1993.

Party		2016 West Bengal Vidhan Sabha election	2016 voteshare	West Bengal Vidhan Sabha segments (as of 2019 India Lok Sabha election)[12][13]	2019 voteshare	Change in seats	Change in voteshare (in terms of pp)
	BJP	3	10.16%	121	40.7%	118	30.54
	INC	44	12.25%	9	5.67%	35	6.58
	TMC	211	44.91%	164	43.3%	47	1.61
	LF	32	19.75%	0	6.33%	32	13.42
	Others	1	2.26%	0	NA	1	NA

In the 2019 general elections, the BJP increased its number of Lok Sabha seats from 2 to 18, and took 40% of the vote share, an increase from 11% in the 2016 elections. Trinamool Congress (TMC) was reduced from 34 to 22 seats, Indian National Congress (INC) was reduced from 4 to 2 seats, and for the first time since their individual inceptions, no party from the Left Front (namely CPI(M), CPI, AIFB & RSP) was able to win a single seat from the state.^[14] This was the best ever performance of the BJP in the state (where it had never won more than 2 seats) in terms of both seats & voteshare. Public anger towards corruption and hooliganism of a section of TMC cadres in rural areas during the 2018 panchayat elections, religious polarisation by BJP fueled by resentment of a section of Bengali Hindu society towards Mamata Banerjee's tactics of Muslim appeasement,^[15] and large scale support of the Rajbongshi and Matua communities for granting Indian citizenship to exclusively non-Muslim Bangladeshi immigrants^[16] over fears of a demographic change fuelled by infiltration of undocumented Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, allegedly supported by Mamata Banerjee have been cited as important reasons behind the rise of BJP in West Bengal alongside the decline of Left Front.

With Narendra Modi becoming the only non-Congress prime minister to remain in power for two consecutive terms (amounting to ten years) without depending on the support of the National Democratic Alliance, and the BJP fulfilling the wish of its founder Shyamaprasad Mukherjee^[c] by revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir^[17] and long standing promise of resolving the Ayodhya dispute in favour of Hindus, the party considered the formation of a BJP-led state government in West Bengal (a state which has historically never voted for right-wing parties in large numbers) for the first time as a means of paying homage to Mukherjee, who hailed from there. A BJP victory in West Bengal would have also demoralised Mamata Banerjee's attempts of creating a non-BJP non-Congress alliance of regional parties that might play an important role in the upcoming general elections.^[18][19]

BJP increased their seats in the assembly from 3 to 53 when the West Bengal Legislative Assembly was dissolved through defections from TMC, INC, and Left Front leaders, and by-elections from 2016 to 2021. A prominent defector in December 2020 was Suvendu Adhikari,^[20] who was a long-time associate of Mamata Banerjee, and a state cabinet minister who was dissatisfied over the rising influence of her nephew Abhishek Banerjee in the party. However, Adhikari revealed that he was in contact with the BJP since 2014 after he joined the party.^[21] His father Sisir Adhikari, the MP from Kanthi, also defected from TMC to BJP.^[22] Another cabinet minister, Rajib Banerjee, also joined BJP.^[23]

However, the TMC won the Kharagpur Sadar seat from BJP and Kaliaganj seat from the INC, while retaining the Karimpur seat in the by-polls held later in 2019^[24] after Abhishek Banerjee employed Prashant Kishor as the election strategist of Trinamool Congress for the upcoming polls. Elections to municipal bodies of West Bengal (which include 112 municipalities^[d] and the municipal corporations of Kolkata, Howrah, Bidhannagar, Chandannagar, Asansol and Siliguri) could not be held as scheduled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

The pandemic became an election issue.^[29][30] The government was accused of "fudging" the count of positive cases and deaths in the region,^[31] and the AITC-led state government and BJP-led union government blamed each other for the surge in COVID-19 infections over the course of the campaign.^[32]

The BJP accused Mamata Banerjee of not attending COVID-19 emergency management meetings held during the months of election campaigning, despite the second wave of infections,^[33] and for also holding election rallies. Sanjukta Morcha held the first Brigade rally ahead of polling in West Bengal.^[34] In mid-April, TMC requested holding the remaining phases of the elections in a single phase amid the rising number of COVID cases,^[35] but it was rejected by the Election Commission of India (ECI).^[36]

In May 2020, a year before the 2021 elections, Cyclone Amphan hit the state.^[37][29] After it passed, widespread allegations of mismanagement^[38] and relief scam were reported.^[39][40] Protests broke out in some districts over the allegations,^[41][42] and the opposition made it an election issue ahead of the Assembly polls.^[43][44]

In 2019, the BJP-led Union Government passed the CAA in Parliament, promising citizenship to immigrants and refugees belonging to religious minorities in Bangladesh, and providing them with rehabilitation.^[9][45] The BJP's Bengali booklet released in January 2020 claimed that the National Register of Citizens was implemented to identify allegedly undocumented illegal Muslim immigrants, but religiously persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Parsi, and other religious minorities would be "shielded" by the CAA.^[46][47]

Polarisation amongst various religious, linguistic, and caste communities were also likely to play a role in this election.^[48] Both TMC and BJP had promised schemes for various communities.^[49][50] Although previously mobilized by Left governments against elites under the "class" narrative, the Dalits of West Bengal began to assert their identity politically.^[51][52][53] Religious polarization is particularly intense in districts bordering Bangladesh, such as North 24 Parganas. Arguments regarding who are native to the state and constituencies were also likely to impact the elections.^[54][55][56] Dissatisfaction and defection of many TMC leaders to BJP, allegedly due to rising influence of Abhishek Banerjee and Kishor in party administration was also likely to impact the elections.^[57]

An event was organised by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in Kolkata's Victoria Memorial to commemorate Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's 125th birth anniversary, which was attended by PM Narendra Modi and CM Mamata Banerjee among others. A large number of BJP activists were present in the crowd.^[58][59] Just as Banerjee got up to speak, BJP supporters started chanting "Jai Shri Ram" which prompted the CM to abandon her speech.^[60] This incident led to a political slugfest between the BJP and the TMC ahead of the upcoming elections. Meanwhile, Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh made controversial remarks about Netaji.^[61] Mamata claimed that the BJP had "insulted Netaji and Bengal" by their actions.^[62][63] The BJP leadership criticised Banerjee while the Left Front and the Congress backed her and condemned the BJP for the incident of Victoria Memorial.^[64][65][66] Not only political personalities but also non-political people from different levels of the society, including Netaji's grandnephew Sugata Bose, condemned the incident of chanting religiopolitical slogans by BJP supporters which was unlikely for an apolitical event dedicated to Netaji.^[67][68][69]

The election schedule was announced on 26 February 2021, and the election was held in eight phases from 27 March 2021 to 29 April 2021. Votes were counted on 2 May 2021.^[70][71] On the day of announcement, the ECI declared that physically disabled and elderly voters would get the benefit of postal voting and the time limit for voting was extended by one hour.^[72][73] Due to polling abnormalities, re-polling for booth number 88 in Jangipara was held in the fourth phase.^[74] The elections in Jangipur and Samserganj were adjourned due to the death of the INC candidate in Samserganj and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) candidate in Jangipur.^[75] Polling for these two seats was originally rescheduled to 13 May 2021,^[76] but as that day was Eid, it was pushed back to 16 May.^[77] Later on ECI adjourned polling for both constituencies and it took place on 30 September.^[78] Repolling at the Amtali Madhyamik Siksha Kendra polling station in Sitalkuchi was conducted on 29 April, after CISF personnel were fired on 10 April.^[79]

Schedule

Poll Event	Phase
	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII	—
Map of constituencies and their phases
No. of Constituencies	30	30	31	44	45	43	34	35	2
Date of Issue of Notification	2 March 2021	5 March 2021	12 March 2021	16 March 2021	23 March 2021	26 March 2021	31 March 2021	31 March 2021	—
Last Date for filling nomination	9 March 2021	12 March 2021	19 March 2021	23 March 2021	30 March 2021	3 April 2021	7 April 2021	7 April 2021	26 April 2021[e]
Scrutiny of nomination	11 March 2021	15 March 2021	20 March 2021	24 March 2021	31 March 2021	5 April 2021	8 April 2021	8 April 2021	27 April 2021[e]
Last Date for Withdrawal of nomination	12 March 2021	17 March 2021	22 March 2021	26 March 2021	3 April 2021	7 April 2021	12 April 2021	12 April 2021	29 April 2021[e]
Date of Poll	27 March 2021	1 April 2021	6 April 2021	10 April 2021	17 April 2021	22 April 2021	26 April 2021	29 April 2021	30 September 2021[4]
Date of Counting of Votes	2 May 2021								3 October 2021[4]

Both factions of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) expressed support for TMC in the assembly election.^[82] TMC allotted three seats in the Darjeeling to GJM, but its two factions, namely Bimal and Binoy, declared fielding their candidates in each of the three seats.^[83] RJD, Shiv Sena, and JMM also endorsed Trinamool for the election.^[84][85][86] TMC supported Independent candidate in Joypur after their candidate's nomination was cancelled.^[87][88]

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	All India Trinamool Congress			Mamata Banerjee	290
	Gorkha Janmukti Morcha			Bimal Gurung	3
				Binoy Tamang
	Independent	N/A			1

On 28 January 2021 Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury announced that seat-sharing talks between the Congress and Left Front had concluded for 193 seats and that the remaining 101 seats would be decided at a later point.^[89][90] Out of the 193 seats agreed upon by 28 January 92 went to Congress and 101 to the Left Front.^[89] Left Front & Congress announced from a rally at the Brigade Parade ground on 28 February 2021 that they would form an alliance called Sanyukta Morcha with a newly-formed outfit called ISF.^[91] ISF initially claimed that they secured 30 seats from the Left Front's quota.^[92] After the final seat sharing agreement was concluded, it was announced that the Left Front would contest 165 seats, Congress 92 seats, and ISF 37 seats.^[93][94]

Left Front chairman Biman Bose announced the candidates for the first and second-phase elections on 5 March alongside INC and ISF leaders, leaving seats for them in the list.^[95] INC revealed its first list of 13 candidates for the first two phases on 6 March.^[96] Left Front announced its second list of candidates on 10 March, consisting of several new and young faces from All India Students Federation (AISF), All India Youth Federation (AIYF), Students' Federation of India (SFI), and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), along with ex-ministers of the Left Front government and ex-MPs;^[97] Bose also nominated DYFI West Bengal state president Minakshi Mukherjee as the CPI(M) candidate for the Nandigram seat, which was kept vacant in the first list published on 5 March.^[98] On 14 March, INC revealed their second list of 34 candidates on 14 March,^[99] and ISF their first set of 20 candidates.^[100] Sanyukta Morcha announced 15 more candidates on 17 March consisting of 9 from the Left Front, 2 from INC, and 4 from ISF.^[101] INC revealed their third list of 39 candidates on 20 March,^[102] and two more on 22 March.

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader(s)	Bloc(s)	Contesting Seats[103]
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)			Surjya Kanta Mishra[104]	Left Front	138
	All India Forward Bloc			Debabrata Biswas		21
	Revolutionary Socialist Party			Biswanath Chowdhury		11
	Communist Party of India			Swapan Banerjee		10
	Marxist Forward Bloc[f]			Samar Hazra
	Indian National Congress			Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury	United Progressive Alliance	92
	Indian Secular Front[g]			Abbas Siddiqui	-	32

Five hill-based parties pledged support to BJP ahead of the assembly election: Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists, Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL), Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Morcha, and SUMETI Mukti Morcha.^[82] Hindu Samhati, a right-wing organisation in West Bengal, had withdrawn their support from the BJP at first^[106] to contest the elections on their own,^[107] but eventually they supported the BJP.^[108] BJP allotted the Amta constituency seat to the president of Hindu Samhati to contest under the symbol of BJP.^[109]

BJP also allotted the Baghmundi constituency, bordering Jharkhand, to the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU).^[110][111]

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Seats
	Bharatiya Janata Party			Dilip Ghosh	293
	All Jharkhand Students Union			Ashutosh Mahto	1

Shiv Sena initially said that they would contest in around 100 seats,^[112] but later on 4 March 2021 announced that they would not contest and would support Mamata Banerjee and TMC.^[113]

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader(s)	Contesting Seats[103]
	Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist)			Provash Ghosh	188
	Janata Dal (United)[114]			Sanjay Verma	16[115]
	Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation[116]			Dipankar Bhattacharya	12
	Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Red Star[117]			K N Ramchandran	3
	All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen[118][119][120]			Asaduddin Owaisi	6[121][122][123]
	Bahujan Samaj Party[124]			Mayawati	162
	National People's Party[125]				3

On 27 March, the ECI banned the publication of surveys and exit polls until 7:30 pm on 29 April to prevent influencing voters,^[126][127] but the ban ended half an hour earlier.^[128]

NK Digital Magazine's exit poll predicted victory for TMC in general election for the Samserganj seat and by-election for the Bhabanipur seat.^{[158][159][160]} Ekhon Biswa Bangla Sangbad predicted TMC's victory in all three seats where elections took place on 30 September.^[161]

A number of pre-poll surveys for the elections were published by different agencies and groups in the span of one year until 27 March. Most polls contradicted each other regarding the possible outcome.^[162]

NK Digital Magazine's opinion poll predicted victory for TMC in Jangipur and Samserganj.^{[182][183][184]} They also conducted a pre-poll survey across poll-bound Assembly constituencies that predicted TMC's victory.^[185][186]

The ECI issued various health guidelines for conducting the elections, including the use of masks, sanitisation of the polling booths, use of thermal scanners before entering the polling booths, maintaining social distancing, and so forth.^[187] The maximum number of voters for each polling station was lowered to 1000 from 1500.^[188]

After COVID-19 cases increased in the state,^[189] the ECI issued warnings for all recognised state and national political parties to strictly follow COVID-19 guidelines,^[190] and banned all political rallies, public meetings, street plays and nukkad sabhas from 7 pm to 10 am starting from 16 April.^[191] On 22 April 2021, before the seventh and eighth phases of voting, the ECI forbade roadshows, and added that at most 500 people were allowed in public meetings.^[192] On 27 April, they issued a notification over banning victory processions on and after the day the votes were counted.^[193]

After several instances of violence, threats, and murders before the polls were announced, the ECI and the Home Ministry ordered twelve companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) to be deployed in West Bengal on 20 February. At least 125 more CAPF troops were dispatched to reach West Bengal on 25 February to focus on sensitive zones.^[194] 60 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 30 companies of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), 25 companies of the Border Security Force (BSF) and five companies each of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).^[195] The total number of central forces rose to 725,^[196][197] before a final total of 1,000 companies after the third phase of polling.^[198]

In the second phase of election, Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was implemented across areas in the Tamluk and Haldia subdivisions.^[199] After the fourth phase of polling, the ECI deployed an extra 71 companies of central forces.^[200]

• Number of general voters: 73,294,980
  • Male voters: 37,366,306
  • Female voters: 35,927,084
  • Non-binary voters: 1,590
• Number of service voters: 112,642
• Overseas voters: 210
• Total number of voters: 73,407,832
• Polling stations: 101,916^{[203][204][205]}

• In February, Jakir Hossain, the MLA from Jangipur and Labour Minister of West Bengal, received serious injuries after bombs were thrown at him in the Nimtita railway station.^{[212][213][214]}
• On their way to attend the Brigade rally of Sanjukta Morcha, ISF workers attacked TMC activists in Bhangar.^[215]
• On 10 March, Mamata Banerjee filed her nomination at the Haldia sub-divisional office headquarters as the TMC candidate for Nandigram. Around 6:15 pm she was injured when she was leaving the Birulia market area of that constituency. She alleged that she was pushed by "four-five people" who manhandled her and slammed the door of her car on her foot. She was taken to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata for treatment.^[216] BJP MP Subramanian Swamy made a direct call to her office and inquired about her health before giving a statement wishing her good health.^[217] A day after being injured, Mamata Banerjee released a video message urging people and party workers to be calm and exercise restraint.^[218][219] Two days after being admitted, she was discharged at the TMC's multiple requests.^[220] She alleged that the attack was orchestrated by Adhikari, who denied the claim. Eyewitness Nitai Maity, a sweet shopkeeper, said "[t]he crowd was already there. But as soon as the car arrived, it was as if the area was flooded with people. There was a bit of pushing. In the meantime, Mamata Banerjee had just opened the front door of the car and had just stepped out. Suddenly there was a push from outside and the door closed. Mamata Banerjee suddenly fell to the ground with a severe leg injury."^[221] Medinipur DIG Kunal Agarwal, District Magistrate Bivu Goel, and Superintendent of Police Praveen Prakash went to Birulia Bazar, Nandigram, on Thursday morning to collect eyewitness statements before sending their report to the ECI, whose report on the incident officially ruled out any possibility of foul play and suspended two police officers for being absent from the chief minister's convoy of policemen meant to provide her safety. TMC and BJP workers clashed in front of the DM and the SP. Mamata Banerjee continued to campaign, and the BJP accused of her of trying to gain the voters' sympathy by flaunting her injured leg in an attempt to "[play] the victim card". Some self-proclaimed eyewitnesses claimed that the car door collided with an iron beam embedded on the road, but Firhad Hakim stated that it had no scratches.^[222][223] TMC leaders stated that most of those who were giving eyewitness statements were BJP staff members^[224][225] and asked, "If they are really 'eyewitnesses' then why did they go near the Chief Minister's convoy in that crowd (despite being workers of the BJP)?" Paritosh Jana, TMC President of the Birulia region, said, "The BJP had planted some drunken people into the crowd. They attacked the Chief Minister pretending to have a view of her. They pushed the Supremo when she opened the car's door and was about to step out. The CM did not name any political party. She had only spoken of miscreants. But the BJP is opposing in advance. (They are) giving slogans against the CM. We firmly believe that it is the work of the BJP. It's just like 'the loud voice of a thief's mother' (Bangla version of the proverb 'rogues supplant justice')."^[226]
• On 15 March, Mamata Banerjee claimed that at a political rally in Balarampur that goons were entering through the border of Ajodhya Hills area. She accused the BJP of planning to loot votes by sending goons from outside by trains on the eve of the election in order to intimidate voters.^[227] On 23 March, she repeated these claims and made demands to seal the border areas.^[228] On 26 February, Kolkata TV had reported on BJP workers entering West Bengal from the Hindi Belt. Each of them was given 300 rupees per day.^[229] On 29 April, some miscreants with firearms were caught on Kolkata TV cameras in Birbhum. They claimed to be outsiders and said that they were hired to do this for 10,000 rupees.^[230])
• In Baruipur, a TMC activist was killed in clash with members of CPI(M) and ISF.^{[231][232][233]}
• Before the first phase of election, an election vehicle was set on fire by two unknown men.^[234]
• On 25 March, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh made derogatory comments against Mamata Banerjee from a political rally in Purulia for which he was issued a notice by the ECI. He raised questions on her character due to her unmarried status and stated that if she wants to flaunt her injured leg before the public to gain political dividends, then she should wear bermuda shorts (euphemism for underwear in Indian English) instead of a saree.^[235]
• On 27 March, the day of first phase polling, TMC supporters protested outside booth 172 of Majna of the South Contai seat, alleging electronic voting machine malfunction. They alleged that casting a vote for TMC displayed the lotus sign of BJP. Similar allegations came from the closest booth to it.^{[236][237][238]}
• Two security personnel were reportedly injured in Satsatmal village, Purba Medinipur district, in a firing and bombing incident during phase 1 of polling.^[239]
• A BJP worker's dead body was found in Paschim Medinipur during the first phase of election.^[240] The ECI said that they did not find any political motive in his death.^[241]
• Three TMC activists were injured in a blast in Bankura during the first phase of elections.^[242]
• Three TMC workers were attacked in Boyal of Nandigram. One of them, Rabin Manna, was admitted to SSKM Hospital with serious injuries, and died on 9 April around 4:30 am at SSKM Hospital.^[243] On 31 March, Mamata Banerjee said that her car was attacked again in Nandigram a day ago when she visited Manna's house.^{[244][245][246][247][248]} She later claimed she was informed by Manna's wife that BJP-backed goons were threatening to abduct her daughter and they had to take refuge with a local minority family.^[249]
• In Dantan, it was reported that the CPRF prevented people from voting. A complaint was lodged at a local police station that alleged that the CPRF were allowing BJP workers to stay in the booth and cast votes in their name.^[250]
• While on an official visit to Bangladesh, Modi visited the birthplace of Harichand Thakur at Orakandi in the Gopalganj district in an attempt to woo the electorally influential Matua community of the state. Mamata Banerjee asserted his trip to Orakandi is a violation of the poll code.^[251][252]
• On 28 March, the ECI stated that 56 bombs were seized from Narendrapur of South 24 Parganas district.^[253]
• During the nomination filing by the BJP candidate in Bijpur, gunshots were fired and later clashes broke out between BJP and TMC staff.^[254]
• On 30 March, Ashok Dinda, BJP's candidate from Moyna, Purba Medinipur, was attacked and his vehicle vandalised during a campaign. He claimed that hundreds of people wielding lathi and rods hurled stones at his vehicle. Dinda's shoulder was injured.^[255]
• On 2 April, the West Bengal Police seized 41 crude bombs in Bhangar.^[256]
• During the third phase of polling (6 April), Sujata Mondal, TMC candidate in Arambag, was attacked by some goons at Arandi-I booth 263.^{[257][258][259]}
• During the third phase of polling, electronic voting machines and VVPAT machines were found in the house of a TMC politician of North Uluberia. The sector officer was later suspended.^[260]
• The TMC accused the BJP of distributing cash coupons among people to lure them to attend Modi's rally.^[261][262]
• In the fourth phase of polling, there were two major instances of violence, both in the Sitalkuchi constituency of the Cooch Behar district. In Pathantuli, a first-time voter, Ananda Barman, was shot and killed by unknown assailants after casting his vote. Both BJP and TMC claimed he was one of their workers, but family members said he was a belonged to BJP.^[263] In Sitalkuchi, CISF personnel who were guarding a polling station in Jorepatki shot and killed four Muslim villagers, who they alleged were part of a mob attacking them. They claimed the mob attacked them over rumours the security forces had thrashed a local boy and they fired in self-defence. The families of the deceased claimed the firing was deliberate, and that they were in a queue to vote.^[264][265] Media staff found video footage from local sources,^[266] but Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey called it fake without citing any proper reason.^[267]
• On 8 April the ECI issued a notice to Adhikari for communal overtones in his 29 March speech in Nandigram, where he derogatorily referred Mamata Banerjee (who is unmarried) as begum ("a married Muslim woman", thereby indicating that she was characterless).^{[268][269][270]} In his reply to the ECI notice, Adhikari claimed that he never made any personal attack or derogatory remarks against any political leader, but on 13 April, the ECI issued another warning to him for making derogatory statements in his speech.^[271]
• On 12 April, the ECI imposed a 24-hour campaign ban on Mamata Banerjee (effective from 8 pm) for calling out female voters to gherao (or encircle) the CRPF, CAPF and CISF forces on election duty if they "created any obstruction in their right to vote" from a political rally in Cooch Behar district.^[272] The next day, the TMC Supremo staged a solitary dharna next to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the Mayo Road crossing in Kolkata to protest against the ECI's decision.^[273][274] On the same day, the ECI let Adhikari go with only a warning after he commented that voting in favour of Mamata Banerjee would convert West Bengal into a "mini-Pakistan", which led the TMC to allege that the ECI was operating in a biased manner to benefit BJP.^[275][276]
• On 13 April, the ECI imposed a 48-hour campaign ban on former state BJP president Rahul Sinha for endorsing the killing of Muslims in the Sitalkuchi firing incident, and calling for more Muslims to be killed throughout the state in similar manner.^[277]
• On the night before the fifth phase, a picture of the BJP candidate for Ranaghat having lunch with central forces spread on the internet.^[278][279]
• In the fifth phase of polling, in the Shantinagar locality of Bidhannagar, bricks and stones were hurled between TMC and BJP booth workers, leaving eight people injured.^[280][281]
• BJP candidate Gopal Chandra Saha was shot at while campaigning in Maldaha, and was admitted to a hospital.^[282]
• In Jalpaiguri, after polling ended, four BJP agents were found with central force personnel carrying electronic voting machines.^[283]
• On 24 April, Mamata Banerjee revealed details of the WhatsApp chat of an election observer employed by the ECI with BJP leaders, and said, "The Commission is instructing to arrest our party leaders before the [day of] election. I have WhatsApp chat of everything. Observers have spoken among themselves [about this]." She advised Anubrata Mandal, TMC's Birbhum district president, to go to the courts if the commission wrongfully keeps him under surveillance.^[284][285] The ECI put Mondal under "strict surveillance" for 62 hours from 5 pm on 27 April to 7 am on 30 April.^[286])
• On 29 April, during the eighth phase of voting, crude bombs were hurled near Mahajati Sadan in northern Kolkata.^[287]

The election results for 292 constituencies was announced on 2 May 2021 after counting of votes began at 8:00 am (UTC+5:30), while the results for 2 constituencies was delayed until 3 October.^{[288][289][290][291][292]}

• Declared on 2 May 2021:^[293]

Party/Alliance				Popular vote			Seats
				Votes	%	±pp	Contested	Won	+/−
	TMC+		All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)	28,735,420	48.02		290	215	2
			Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) (T) Faction	163,797	0.27		3	1	1
			Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) (G) Faction	103,190	0.17		3	0	3
		Total			48.46		294	216
	NDA		Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	22,850,710	37.97		293	77	74
			All Jharkhand Students Union	61,936	0.1		1	0
		Total			37.98			77
	Sanjukta Morcha
			Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM)	2,837,276	4.73		138	0	26
			Indian National Congress (INC)	1,757,131	2.93		91	0	44
			Indian Secular Front (ISF)	813,489	1.36		32	1	1
			All India Forward Bloc (AIFB)	318,932	0.53		21	0	3
			Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)	126,121	0.21		10	0	2
			Communist Party Of India (CPI)	118,655	0.20		10	0	1
		Total			10.04		294	1
	Other parties
	Independents			646,829	1.08
	NOTA
Total				59,935,989	100.0			292	±0
Valid votes				59,935,989	99.84
Invalid votes				96,674	0.16
Votes cast / turnout				60,032,663	82.32
Abstentions				12,891,443	17.68
Registered voters				72,924,106 [i]

• Declared on 3 October 2021:^[294][295]

Political Parties		Results of remaining Constituencies (declared on 3 October)				Complete Results of 294 Constituencies
		Popular vote		Seats		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	Contested	Won	Votes	%	±pp	Contested	Won	+/−
	AITC	232,861	60.19	2	2	28,968,281	48.02		290	215	4
	BJP	54,764	14.16	2	0	22,905,474	37.97		293	77	74
	CPI(M)	6,158	1.59	1	0	2,843,434	4.71		139	0	26
	INC	70,038	18.10	1	0	1,827,169	3.03		92	0	44
	RSP	9,067	2.34	1	0	135,188	0.22		11	0	2
	NOTA	7,621	1.97			654,449	1.08
Total		386,845	100.00	2		60,322,834	100.00		294
Valid votes		386,845	99.95			60,322,834	99.84
Invalid votes		183	0.05			96,857	0.16
Votes cast / turnout		387,028	78.88			60,419,691	82.30
Abstentions		103,614	21.12			12,995,057	17.70
Registered voters		490,642 [296][297]	100.00			73,414,748	100.00

Region Name	Seats	AITC		BJP		OTH
North Bengal	54	23	1	30	25	01	24
South Bengal	184	159	16	24	24	01	40
Rarh Banga	56	33	11	23	22	00	11
Total seats	294	216	04	77	71	2	75