2026 State Polls: Frenzied voting in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal 1st Phase
Tamil Nadu and West Bengal Thursday April 23, 2026 registered record voter-turnouts amidst the heavy deployment of security personnel in both the states
2026 Assembly Elections: Tamil Nadu and West Bengal Thursday April 23, 2026 registered record voter-turnouts amidst the heavy deployment of security personnel in both the states.
Polling was held in Tamil Nadu for all its 234 assembly seats whereas in West Bengal votes were cast in 152 of the total 294 seats. For the remaining 142 seats, polling will be held on April 29, 2026.
As per the Election Commission of India, West Bengal registered a voter turnout of 92.72% in the first phase of assembly polls yesterday, while Tamil Nadu recorded unprecedented voting of 85.14%.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said the voter turnout in the first phase of the West Bengal assembly polls was the state’s “highest-ever percentage since Independence”.
Elections to elect new assemblies are being held in the 5 states – Kerala, Assam, Puducherry, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Polling in Kerala, Puducherry and Assam were held on April 09, 2026, and counting of votes on May 04, 2026.
The opposition and ruling parties both are looking at the high percentage of voter-turnout in their favour.
Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah both are optimistic that the BJP will “overthrow the 15-year rule of Trinamool Congress (TMC)”.
The mood in the TMC is also somber, and Chief Minister Mamata Banerji’s one line statement “Agar TMC rahegi to phir mile ge” is being seen as all is not well about the TMC’s prospects in the 2026 state elections.
The assembly elections in the five states are underway amid the shadow of a strong wave against Special Intensive Revision (SIR) following which the names of hundreds of thousands of electorates were removed from the voter lists.
Political analysts, however, are of the view that the high voter turnout in West Bengal – where names of some 27 lakh voters were removed, reflects people’s anger against the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
“It appears people were waiting for the polling day to express their anger against the arbitrary manner used to remove the names of local residents from the voter lists”, a political commentator said.
In a statement Thursday, the TMC said, “Despite the Election Commission deleting 91 lakh names through SIR, Bengal has delivered a record voter turnout. Why? Because the people of Bengal know this could be their last real chance to secure their future. They see the NRC and delimitation threat staring them in the face, and they have voted with full force to smash every future conspiracy of BJP.”
In Tamil Nadu, the high-stakes election saw a three-cornered contest between the ruling DMK+Congress alliance, the opposition BJP+AIADMK coalition, and actor-politician Vijay’s party TVK.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of India on Friday praised the unprecedented voter participation in the opening phase of the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026, expressing satisfaction over the largely peaceful polling process.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, observed that the high voter participation reflects the strength of India's democracy.
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