I am the candidate in all 294 seats in Bengal polls: Mamata

Urging the electorate to have faith in her, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday (March 29, 2026) said people should consider her as the candidate contesting in all 294 seats of the West Bengal Assembly.

“Mothers and sisters, will you vote for us or not? Forget who is your candidate, I am the candidate everywhere. We will be the ones forming the government,” the Trinamool Congress chairperson told a gathering in Purulia district.

This was the first time during the 2026 election campaign that Ms. Banerjee said she was a candidate in all the 294 Assembly seats. Almost 10 years ago, ahead of the 2016 Assembly polls, when several Trinamool leaders, including Ministers, were caught on camera accepting cash for party funds in the Narada sting videos, the Chief Minister had made similar remarks that she was the candidate in all seats.

Ms. Banerjee is the heart and soul of the Trinamool Congress and the campaign of the party is centred around her. The 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal, where the Trinamool Congress was successfully able to resist the attack by the Bharatiya Janata Party, was built on the campaign “Banglar Nijer Mein Ki Chai [Bengal wants its own daughter].”

The Trinamool Congress has fielded candidates in 291 out of the 294 seats and left the three seats to its ally, Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha. Ms. Banerjee is contesting from Bhabanipur in Kolkata, a constituency she had represented since 2011.

During her speech at Manbazar in Purulia, Ms. Banerjee retorted to the remarks made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday where he had said that the Chief Minister always played the ‘victim card’. “Sometimes she talks about her injury; sometimes she abuses the Election Commission. But the people of West Bengal now understand her victim card politics very well,” Mr. Shah had said.

The Chief Minister said she had repeatedly returned from the brink of death and wondered if the BJP leaders want her dead.

“They are saying that I roam around with a bandage during the polls. I have repeatedly returned from the brink of death. Go and check the report of the doctor…Did you deliberately injure my leg during the 2021 elections? I campaigned in a wheelchair. Are you planning to kill me?” Ms. Banerjee said.

Shout slogans

Addressing a gathering at Nowda in Murshidabad district, Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee faced some slogans from the crowd. Some in the crowd were upset about the re-nomination of sitting MLA Sahina Mumtaz Begum, alleging that she had failed to deliver during her tenure

Warning party supporters that indiscipline would not be tolerated, Mr. Banerjee said if the party supporters did not like the candidate, they should believe that he was the candidate.

“If anyone is dissatisfied with the candidate, then think that I, Abhishek Banerjee, am contesting from here,” said the Diamond Harbour MP.