Assembly Election Dates 2026: The Election Commission of India announced the poll dates for four states and a Union Territory on Sunday, 15 March.
Voting begins on 9 April in all four states and the Union Territory (UT), and votes will be counted on 4 May. The states include Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam and the Union Territory of Puducherry, where elections are due in April-May.
The terms of the Assemblies in all these states/Union Territory ends between May and June. The West Bengal Assembly’s term gets over on 7 May, Tamil Nadu’s on 10 May, Assam’s on 20 May, Kerala’s on 23 May, and Puducherry’s on 15 June.
The upcoming elections are crucial for both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition’s INDIA bloc.
| Assembly Election 2026 Schedule for 4 states and one Union Territory | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State/UT | seats | Phases | Date of Polling | Results |
| West Bengal | 294 | 2 | April 23, 29 | May 4th |
| Assam | 126 | 1 | April 9 | May 4th |
| Tamil Nadu | 234 | 1 | April 23 | May 4th |
| Kerala | 140 | 1 | April 9 | May 4th |
| Puducherry | 30 | 1 | April 9 | May 4th |
Polls are to be held for 294 seats in West Bengal, 234 seats in Tamil Nadu, 140 seats in Kerala, 126 seats in Assam and 30 seats in the Union Territory of Puducherry.
Elections in Bengal will be held in two phases on 23 and 29 April.
What happened in West Bengal in 2021?
The last assembly election in West Bengal was held in eight phases between 27 March and 29 April, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election was held in eight phases between 27 March to 29 April to elect all 294 members of the Legislative Assembly.
The incumbent Trinamool Congress government led by Mamata Banerjee won the election by a landslide, despite opinion polls generally predicting a close race against the Bharatiya Janata Partywhich became the official opposition with 77 seats. For the first time in the history of Bengal, no members from the Congress and the Communist Party were elected.
Poll schedule for other states?
Elections for 140 seats of Kerala will be held in a single phase on 9 April.
Puducherry will vote in a single phase on 9 April for its 30 seats.
Elections for 234 seats of Tamil Nadu will be held in a single phase on 23 April.
Assam will vote in one phase on 9 April for its 126 seats.
Vote counting for all states will be held on May 4.
This will be the first major set of elections after the Bihar polls held last year.
West Bengal will see the most high-stakes battle with three-time Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee facing a tough challenge from the BJP amid anti-incumbency reports.
The BJP is also campaigning aggressively to retain power in Assam, where it won for the first time in 2016 and 2021, beating the Congress.
What happened in Tamil Nadu and Kerala in 2021?
The upcoming elections are crucial for both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition’s INDIA bloc.
In the 2021 assembly polls, the DMK led by MK Stalin swept to power after a decade in opposition, winning 133 seats on its own. DMK, along with Congress and other alliance partners, won 159 out of 234 seats.
The 2021 assembly election in Kerala saw the Left Democratic Front (LDF), led by the CPI(M), bagging a historic second consecutive term, winning 99 of 140 seats. The United Democratic Front (UDF), led by the Congress, was reduced to 41 seats. The BJP-led NDA managed just one seat.
