West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026 | Battleground Bengal: Can TMC's women candidates blunt SIR deletions?

In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), despite reeling under massive SIR deletions in these high-stakes elections, has continued its strategy to increase electoral representation of women, thus reinforcing its “Bangla Nijer Meye ke Chaye” (Bengal wants its own daughter) narrative and making this election centre around gender parity and Bengali sub-nationalism. 

The TMC’s consistent focus on increasing women's representation has become a potent weapon to counter the Opposition, whom they claim just indulge in “tokenism”. 

This time, the party is fielding 52 women candidates, around 18% of the total 291 seats it is contesting.

The party cannot afford to lose its women voters, as their higher turnouts and solid support as a distinctive bloc have been important factors in the TMC’s massive victories in the past three elections. The TMC views women as its most “winnable” candidates, who the party believes strengthen its grassroots politics. In 2021, TMC secured 50% of the female vote.

Political analyst Romita Dutta told DH, “Women have always rallied behind Mamata because of her ability to play the gender card right. In the 2021 election, she projected herself as Bengal's daughter, trying to protect her state from a bunch of marauding outsiders out to destroy the state's culture. She warned people in rally after rally that the outsiders would be dangerous for women. Later, when she injured herself and campaigned in a wheelchair, her image, that of a woman fighting alone and against a party, which was muscle-flexing, got stuck in women's psyches. Somehow they could identify with her situation. This feeling of empathy helped her party get 50% of women's votes, 13% more than what the BJP got.”

One of Mamata Banerjee’s major poll planks has been the welfare measures such as Lakshmir Bhandar, Kanyashree and Rupashree aimed at women and young girls. These have ensured that TMC’s core voters do not stray away. 

Dutta says, "The welfare schemes, especially Lakshmir Bhandar, a monthly basic allowance for women, have been one of the most enduring factors in ensuring her victory. Multiple studies show that women spend this money on medicines and children's education without having to borrow from their husbands. This is why BJP is also now talking of an enhanced monthly allowance.”

With its focus on marginalised communities, the TMC has fielded at least 25 women from the SC and ST reserved seats in 2026. West Bengal has a total of 68 SC seats and 16 ST seats. At least 20 seats out of the 68 SC seats have been given to women candidates; that is around 29.4% of the total SC seats. Out of 16 ST seats, the party has given five seats to women, making it 31% of the total ST seats. 

Like in Phansidewa (ST seat), the TMC has fielded Reena Toppo Ekaa, who has worked in tea gardens, or in Ranibandh (SC seat), Tanushree Hansda, who has been working for the uplift of Adivasis in the Jangalmahal. The party says these choices reflect the party’s faith in resilient women, whose lives have been shaped by struggle. Observers say that Mamata's ability to identify a large number of such women candidates means that she seriously scouts for such talents.

This time, Mamata has also repeated at least 24 of its women MLAs, including herself, dropping only nine, giving two of these seats to new women faces. This decision is being seen as a tactical move, showing that she reposes faith in her female legislative core. It is clear that she believes in continuity and is not ready to upset the deep roots which these women leaders have developed within their constituencies.

Statistics show that the TMC’s women candidates are likely winners as they face lower anti-incumbency as compared to men, as they are generally perceived as less corrupt and more socially acceptable to people even after five years. Thus, repeating them makes sense and helps maintain a “softer” image for the party at the local level. This time, the party has also fielded some new women's faces, dropping many sitting male MLAs to provide a cleaner image.

In 2021, TMC had fielded 50 women out of the 291 seats it contested, and 33 of those 50 romped home, making the party’s success rate 66%. Many of them were repeated then too and won and proved their electoral mettle. 

TMC has been consistently promoting women candidates at the parliamentary level too. 

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party fielded 12 women candidates out of the total 42 seats of the state, out of which 11 won their seats, adding to the total of 29 TMC seats. This represented approximately 28.5% of their total candidates in the state, maintaining the party’s trend of high female representation in the parliamentary elections.

Beginning in 2011, when TMC was fighting hard to demolish 34 years of CPM rule, it fielded 32 women, out of which 25 romped home, working out a massive success rate of 78%. In 2011, the Left Front had fielded 49 women, but only 6 could win. In 2016, TMC fielded 45 women candidates, out of which 29 emerged victorious, with the success rate being 64%.

Tara Krishnaswamy, co-founder of Shakti, which works to provide political power to women, told DH: "The TMC has significantly outdone all other parties. It has not been like others: 10-15% like Nitish Kumar or 33% like BJD. Mamata has gone up to 41% in the parliamentary elections and a significant percentage in the Assembly elections; she has been pretty consistent about it. She has also been robust in the welfare schemes for women.” 

She adds, “The way women vote is not based on a single factor, except under extraordinary circumstances like CAA or NRC. Just welfare schemes cannot be a deciding factor, but as a package it becomes important. The package offers political empowerment, human development empowerment, educational and health empowerment and so forth. Women will vote for her based on the whole package. She is trying to complete the package by offering these tickets. It is not a one-off thing.” 

The BJP, on the other hand, although increasing its tally of giving more seats to women, has not been able to match TMC’s maths. 

In 2011, the party fielded 23 women candidates with no wins. In 2016, it fielded 32 again and ended up with no winner. In 2021, it fielded 36 women and seven won.

In 2026, BJP is fielding 44 women candidates, with prominent amongst them being Ratna Debnath, mother of R G Kar victim, who is contesting from Panihati and says she is fighting for women’s rights in West Bengal. And Rekha Patra, the alleged Sandeshkhali sexual assault victim from Hingalganj, who, however, lost the Lok Sabha elections from Bashirhat in 2024; actress Roopa Ganguly from Sonarpur Dakshin, among others. The BJP has also repeated six of its current MLAs. 

The disparity between both parties’ women-centric ticket distribution is not just about numbers but, experts say, about their intent. The entire TMC brand is built around the country’s only woman chief minister, who says, “Consider me as your candidate in all the 294 seats," urging voters to rally behind her leadership and sending the message of “leadership over labels".

In contrast, the BJP’s leadership in Bengal is predominantly male-centric. Without a high-profile female face at the top, the party often struggles to project the same level of "organic" female leadership.

Krishnaswamy says, “As far as the BJP is concerned, they have no intent to match TMC’s seat distribution numbers. They don’t want to provide political decision-making authority to women. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was passed but is not meant to come into force. The actual implementation can happen only after the census and delimitation. Now they have brought it forward to increase the number of seats in Parliament because they want more MPs from Hindi states; it has nothing to do with women empowerment.”