2016 West Bengal Election Opinion Poll Election Survey Result Exit Poll Aaj Tak ABP News-Nielsen India TV

A legislative assembly election will be held in 2016 for the 294 seats of the Vidhan Sabha in the state of West Bengal in India. The dates of the election are yet to be announced, as of November 2016. In the previous election in 2011, the All India Trinamool Congress, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, won a majority and ended the 34-year rule of the Left Front government.

Prior to the West Bengal elections, on 3 January 2016, a Muslim mob turned violent and vandalized Kaliachak Police station, block development office and public property in Kaliachak, Malda district. Mamata Banerjee's government was severely criticised for not handling the situation better.

In January 2016, the Election Commission of India urged the central government to allow it to carry out a limited delimitation exercise in West Bengal to ensure voting rights to people who came to India following the exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh. It is speculated that the BJP will field more Muslim candidates in Bengal elections this time. As per updated voter list for the year 2016 published by the Election Commission of India in January 2016, West Bengal has surpassed the rest of the country in elector-population ratio with 0.68. The final electoral roll in West Bengal for 2016 with 6.55 crore voters has 3.39 crore male and 3.16 crore female voters.

Religion data

As of 2011 census, Hinduism is the religion in West Bengal followed by 70.54% of the total population, while Muslims comprise 27.01% of the total population, being the second-largest community as also the largest minority group; Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism and other religions make up the remainder. Buddhism remains a prominent religion in the Himalayan region of the Darjeeling hills, and almost the entirety of West Bengal's Buddhist population are from this region.

Religion in West Bengal (2011)

Hinduism (70.53%)
Islam (27.01%)
Christianity (0.72%)
Buddhism (0.30%)
Sikhism (0.07%)
Jainism (0.06%)
Other Religions (1.03%)
Atheist (0.001%)

Schedule

Assembly elections in West Bengal, are likely to be held sometime in May–June 2016.

Parties and alliances

Left Front leaders hinted at a Left-Congress alliance in the assembly polls scheduled for next year, to give the ruling-Trinamool Congress a tough fight.

Giving indications of a possible alliance between Trinamool Congress and the AAP and JD-U in future, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that they were already in a "relationship"

West Bengal (WB) Assembly Election 2016 Opinion Poll

(March-2016 Projection)