The Election Commission of India (ECI) has successfully conducted the Legislative Assembly elections of West Bengal for the year 2026 in a free and orderly manner, which, for the first time in 20 years, saw zero reported deaths, marking an exceptional achievement in the state’s violent electoral history.
The state elections not only delivered a historic electoral mandate, but it also saw one of India’s largest election security operations undertaken by the Election Commission to ensure peaceful and violence-free polling in a state, which almost in every election, saw political aggression, with around an annual rate of 20 politically-motivated murders between 1999 and 2016, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Massive deployment across all 294 assembly seats
The West Bengal legislative assembly comprises a total of 294 constituencies. Across all these 294 constituencies, the ECI had deployed 2,500 Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) companies, that equals nearly 2,50,000 CAPF personnel, given that one company consists of one-hundred officers.
Not only that, the Commission also deployed 500 Special Observers in the West Bengal polls, including IPS officer Ajay Pal Sharma of the Uttar Pradesh-cadre, who had virally confronted Jahangir Khan, Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s Falta candidate, whose men, as per complaints of voter intimidation, were allegedly collecting voter ID cards of voters in Falta. Additionally, this time, Manoj Kumar Aggrawal, a 1990-batch IAS officer of West Bengal-cadre, was posted as the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal. Assisting him were the special observers NK Mishra and Subrato Gupta. Mishra is an IPS officer while Gupta is a retired IAS officer.
Together this new team directed all operations, supervised the law and order situation on ground and heard public complaints, concerns and grievances, building voter confidence. As per reports, the concerns of the voters were addressed within a time period of thirty-minutes and their reports were directly sent to the CEO.
West Bengal State Police was least involved in the entire machinery, that assuaged common man’s fears and boosted their morale to come forward to complain of any voter intimidation. CCTV cameras were also installed on all polling stations, observers’ vehicles, including the control room.
CEC’s “zero tolerance” approach
The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar had affirmed in the beginning that he will ensure the West Bengal elections are held “free of fear, violence, intimidation and inducements”. Kumar had also called upon the voters to exercise their democratic right without any fear, emphasising, “every elector of West Bengal should exercise his or her vote fearlessly.”
Democratic exercise conducted harmoniously
The West Bengal polls were held in two phases on April 23 and 29 respectively in a peaceful manner, with sporadic incidents of violence. Results were declared on May 4. Election Commission’s success is evinced by the fact that the state recorded a combined voter turnout of 92.47%, the highest poll participation in West Bengal since Independence. Furthermore, zero murders and no serious injuries were reported in these polls. This highlights the violence-free, smooth and stable conduct of elections, a remarkable electoral feat achieved by the ECI in a state which had experienced almost 1,900 incidents of political violence during 2021 elections.
Spectacular performance of the BJP
The 2026 West Bengal elections have also set another record. For the first time, the state has got its first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who was sworn in today, on May 9. The oath-taking ceremony was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi among other prominent dignitaries. BJP won a landslide victory in the polls, winning 207 seats, ending the 15-year rule of Mamata Bannerjee-led TMC. Surprisingly, Adhikari defeated Mamata Bannerjee in her own seat of Bhabanipur by a margin of 15,000 votes, earning the moniker of “Giant Slayer”. He had previously defeated her in Nandigram constituency during 2021 state elections.
Outburst of post-poll violence in the state
The elections were conducted free and fairly, however, West Bengal witnessed incidents of postpoll aggression. Suvendu Adhikari’s personal assistant Chandranath was shot dead by unidentified assailants, while in another case, Central Forces were attacked in Sandeshkhali that injured five personnel, including 2 CRPF jawans and 3 police officers.
CM Adhikari has promised to take action against the perpetrators. He also promised of working hard for the people of Bengal, affirming that, “we want a Bengal that is free from fear and full of dignity.”
