West Bengal General (Lok Sabha) Elections 2019 Latest News & Live Updates

West Bengal is the sixth most populous state of the country, along with being the sixth largest contributor to India's GDP. The state has held regular elections since independence and is known for its political activism.

Parliamentary Seats

West Bengal elects 42 representatives to the lower house of the Parliament or Lok Sabha, the third highest in the country. The state sends 16 members to the Rajya Sabha.

Of these 42 seats, eight are reserved for candidates from Scheduled Caste (SC) while two constituencies - Alipurduars and Jhargram are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) candidates. Some important parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal are Cooch Behar, Dum Dum, Dakshin Kolkata, Birbhum, Jadhavpur, Purulia and Kolkata Uttar.

Till 1969, the state assembly was bicameral but at present it is unicameral.

Major Political Parties

The main national parties active in West Bengal are:

The Communist party of India (CPI) The Communist party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] The Indian National Congress (INC) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

The regional parties in the state are:

All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) All India Forward Block Revolutionary Socialist Party Gorakha National Liberation Front Gorkha Janmukti Morcha Democratic Socialist Party (Prabodh Chandra) Socialist Unity Center of India (Communist)

Election History

The election history of West Bengal election is dominated by the CPI (M) and the INC, though recently AITMC has successfully challenged their dominance. INC ruled the state from 1947 to 1967. In 1967, United Front came to power. It won the 1971 elections too, but failed to complete its term. In 1972, INC returned to power. In 1977, CPM emerged victorious and was led by Jyoti Basu till 2011. Jyoti Basu remained the CM till 2000. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee took over in 2000 and led the party to victory in the 2006 elections. However in 2011, Mamata Bannerjee led AITMC to power, thereby ending 34 years of Left-rule in West Bengal. Their winning streak continued in 2016.

In West Benagal Lok Sabha elections 2019, INC was the leading party in 1951 and 1956 elections. CPM won seats for the first time in 1962 elections, though INC continued to be the leading party. In 1967, INC's share of seats came down. In the 1971 elections, CPM emerged as the leading party and remained the dominant party till 1980. INC made a comeback in the 1984 elections by winning 15 seats only to be reduced to four seats in the 1989 elections. CPM continued to be the leading party from 1989 till 2004 elections as per the latest election update. In 2009, AITC won 19 seats, thus emerging as the leading party in West Bengal. The party again emerged victorious in 2014 polls, winning 34 seats.

Major Politicians

According to the latest election update, some key politicians who will contest the 2019 general elections from West Bengal are:

TMC: Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Mamata Banerjee, Partha Chatterjee, Abhishek Banerjee, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Derek O Brien, Suvendu Adhikari

BJP: Rahul Sinha, Mukul Roy, Dilip Ghosh

Congress:Abdul Mannan, Somen Mitra

CPI-M:Biman Bose, Md Salim, Suryakanta Mishra

Famous Political Personalities

West Bengal has given India a number of visionary politicians. Some of them are:

• Subhas Chandra Bose : Popularly called Netaji; he was an Indian freedom fighter of great renown. He founded the Forward Block in 1939 and headed the Indian National Army (INA).


• Bidhan Chandra Ray: He is a leader of the INC. He was appointed as the second Chief Minister of West Bengal and maintained power in the post for 14 years. He is credited for founding five cities in the state.
• Prafulla Chandra Sen: A renowned freedom fighter and a Gandhian, Sen was the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1961-67. He is noted for introducing food grain rationing in the state.
• Jyoti Basu: He was the longest serving Chief Minister of any state in India and was in power in West Bengal from 1977 to 2000. Basu, a CPI(M) leader was first elected for the legislative assembly in 1952.
• Pranab Mukherjee: He is the current President of India. He started his political career in 1969 and as a leader of the INC held many important portfolios in the Defense, External Affairs and Finance ministries.
• Siddhartha Shankar Ray: He is a politician of the INC and was the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1972 to 1977. He was also a former Governor of Punjab and the Education Minister of India.
• Somnath Chatterjee: He is a prominent CPI(M) politician. He won his first Lok Sabha elections in 1971, and was the leader of CPI(M) in the Lok Sabha from 1989 to 2004. He was the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009.
• Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: He is a member of the Politburo of CPI(M) and was the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011. He was elected to the state assembly for the first time in 1977. As a Chief Minister he is credited for liberalizing Bengal's economy.
• Mamata Bannerjee: She started her career as a Congress politician. She founded the All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC or TMC) in 1997. She was a Union Minister in the NDA and UPA-II regime. In 2011, she became the first female Chief Minister of West Bengal.

Get the latest West Bengal election updates, live updates, news updates 2019, Lok Sabha elections 2019 update and many more.

Election Highlights

Quick Facts	No. of PCs :42 No. of Polling Days :7 Polling Dates :11 April (Phase 1), 18 April (Phase 2), 23 April (Phase 3), 29 April (Phase 4), 6 May (Phase 5), 12 May (Phase 6), and 19 May (Phase 7) Poll Expenditure Limit per Candidate :Rs. 70 lakhs

West Bengal Parliamentary Constituency Winners 2009

Parliamentary Constituencies in West Bengal

PC No.	PC Name	PC No.	PC Name
1	Cooch Behar	22	Jadavpur
2	Alipurduars	23	Kolkata Dakshin
3	Jalpaiguri	24	Kolkata Uttar
4	Darjeeling	25	Howrah
5	Raiganj	26	Uluberia
6	Balurghat	27	Serampore
7	Maldaha Uttar	28	Hooghly
8	Maldaha Dakshin	29	Arambagh
9	Jangipur	30	Tamluk
10	Baharampur	31	Kanthi
11	Murshidabad	32	Ghatal
12	Krishnanagar	33	Jhargram
13	Ranaghat	34	Medinipur
14	Bangaon	35	Purulia
15	Barrackpore	36	Bankura
16	Dum Dum	37	Bishnupur
17	Barasat	38	Bardhaman Purba
18	Basirhat	39	Bardhaman-Durgapur
19	Joynagar	40	Asansol
20	Mathurapur	41	Bolpur
21	Diamond Harbour	42	Birbhum

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