The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal has fielded 55 women candidates for the upcoming assembly elections, scheduled to be held in two phases on April 23 and 29. The number is 22 more than its arch-rival in the state, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has also fielded more Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates than other parties. (PTI FILE)
On Thursday, the central government plans to introduce two bills in Parliament to increase Lok Sabha and state assembly seats through a nationwide delimitation and implementation of 33% reservation for women to be conducted in the next few years.
The Centre has proposed increasing the number of seats in the lower House from 543 to up to 850 by revising Article 81 of the Constitution. This is part of the effort to ensure 33% reservation for women in Parliament starting with the 2029 polls.
While the BJP has fielded 33 women candidates, the Congress has nominated 39 women and the Left parties have given ticket to 28 women.
If the bill gets Parliament approval, 97 assembly seats in the West Bengal legislative assembly will be reserved for women.
Of the 48 Muslim candidates fielded by TMC this year, five are women. There are no Muslim candidates in the BJP’s list although the community comprises 27.01% of state’s population, according to the 2011 census data.
TMC has also fielded more Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates than other parties.
Although 68 and 16 seats in the state assembly are reserved for the SCs and STs respectively, the TMC has fielded 78 SC and 17 ST candidates. Other parties have stuck to the numbers fixed by the quota system. Congress, in fact, has fielded 16 ST candidates.
In the 2021 state elections, the TMC’s main campaign slogan — “Bangla Nijer Meyekei Chai” (Bengal wants its own daughter) — focused on chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her social welfare and financial assistance schemes for women, who comprise a sizeable chunk of TMC voters in both rural and urban areas.
TMC’s focus on women voters remains sharp this year. In the February state budget, the monthly monetary assistance for general category homemakers under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme was hiked from ₹1,000 to ₹1,500 and the same for SCs and STs was increased from ₹1,200 to ₹1,700. Also, under a new scheme for unemployed people aged between 21 and 40 years, the state will give ₹1,500 a month until they get jobs or for a maximum period of five years.
“Our leader Mamata Banerjee tries to help people from all sections of the society despite the Centre suspending the state’s share of funds for major welfare schemes such as NREGA,” TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said.
In 2021, TMC fielded 50 female candidates and 33 of them won. Eight of those winners are ministers in the current government.
Of the 38 women fielded by BJP in 2021, only seven could win.
The Left Front and Congress contested as allies in 2021 but could not win any seat in 2021. They fielded around 70 women.
In the 2021 polls, 240 women (around 11% of the total number of candidates) contested. The Election Commission had not released the corresponding figure for 2026 until Wednesday.
The BJP, too, has shifted its focus to West Bengal’s women voters this year.
The manifesto released last week by Union home minister Amit Shah said women will receive ₹3,000 every month as assistance and ride state buses for free if BJP comes to power.
“Also, monetary assistance of ₹21,000 and six nutrition kits will be given to pregnant women from financially marginalised families. We will empower 7.5 million women under the Centre’s Lakhpati Didi scheme. Two all-women battalions, named after Matangini Hazra and Rani Shiromani will come up in the state reserve police force,” Shah said while releasing the document in Kolkata.
