2026 West Bengal Elections: Top Players And Candidates Of All Parties In The 2021 Assembly Polls

The 2021 West Bengal Assembly election was not just a contest between parties, it was a battle of some of the biggest political names in the state. With Mamata Banerjee seeking a third straight term, the BJP mounting its most serious challenge in Bengal till then, and the Left-Congress-ISF alliance attempting a comeback, the election became heavily shaped by star candidates, party heavyweights and symbolic constituency battles.

As West Bengal moves towards the 2026 Assembly elections, the 2021 contest remains a crucial benchmark for understanding who the top players were across parties and how the biggest names performed. From Mamata Banerjee vs Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram to the BJP's bid to convert central leaders and turncoats into a state-level force, and from the Left's attempt to project younger faces to the Congress and ISF's effort to stay relevant, the 2021 election was defined by a clear set of marquee candidates who dominated headlines even beyond their own constituencies.

The Biggest Face Of 2021: Mamata Banerjee And The Nandigram Showdown

No candidate symbolised the 2021 West Bengal election more than Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress chief and sitting Chief Minister. In one of the most dramatic moves of the campaign, she chose to contest from Nandigram, the politically loaded constituency that had once defined her rise against the Left Front.

There, she faced Suvendu Adhikari, her former close aide who had defected to the BJP and turned the seat into the single biggest prestige battle of the election. The contest became the defining face-off of 2021 and, in many ways, the central political story of the campaign.

Top TMC Faces In 2021

• Mamata Banerjee - Nandigram (lost to Suvendu Adhikari in the high-profile battle)
• Firhad Hakim - Kolkata Port
• Subrata Mukherjee - Ballygunge
• Aroop Biswas - Tollyganj
• Partha Chatterjee - Behala Paschim
• Bratya Basu - Dum Dum
• Sobhandev Chattopadhyay - Khardaha
• Sujit Bose - Bidhannagar
• Chandrima Bhattacharya - Dum Dum Uttar
• Udayan Guha - Dinhata (a key North Bengal face despite losing narrowly in 2021)

Even though Mamata Banerjee lost the Nandigram seat, the TMC still won the state emphatically, taking 213 of the 292 seats declared on result day, later rising to 215 in the full 294-member House after the two deferred seats were completed. That made her defeat in Nandigram politically dramatic, but not electorally fatal.

BJP's Top Players: Suvendu Adhikari Led The Charge

For the BJP, the 2021 election was built around one central goal: dislodge the TMC from power and convert the party's 2019 Lok Sabha gains into a full state-level breakthrough.

The most important BJP face in the Assembly contest was Suvendu Adhikari, the former TMC strongman who defected before the polls and was fielded from Nandigram against Mamata Banerjee. His victory over the Chief Minister turned him into the BJP's biggest state-level political face after the election.

Top BJP Faces In 2021

• Suvendu Adhikari - Nandigram
• Mukul Roy - Krishnanagar Uttar
• Agnimitra Paul - Asansol Dakshin
• Locket Chatterjee - Chunchura
• Babul Supriyo - Tollyganj (then BJP candidate in 2021)
• Swapan Dasgupta - Tarakeswar
• Rudranil Ghosh - Bhawanipur
• Priyanka Tibrewal - Entally
• Jagannath Sarkar - Santipur
• Nisith Pramanik - Dinhata

The BJP ultimately did not win power, but it still emerged as the principal opposition with 77 seats, a massive jump from its near-zero Assembly footprint in earlier cycles. That meant several of its 2021 candidates, even in defeat, became important names for Bengal politics going forward.

Left Front's Key Faces: A Comeback Attempt Built Around Veterans And Younger Leaders

The Left Front entered 2021 trying to revive itself after a severe decline, and its alliance with Congress and ISF under the Sanjukta Morcha banner was designed to break the emerging TMC-BJP bipolarity.

Among the Left's most watched faces was Minakshi Mukherjee, who contested from Nandigram and became one of the alliance's more visible young leaders during the campaign. The Left also leaned on veteran leaders and known organisational names in several constituencies.

Top Left Front Faces In 2021

• Minakshi Mukherjee (CPI(M)) - Nandigram
• Md. Salim (CPI(M)) - prominent campaign face, contested Chandipur
• Sujan Chakraborty (CPI(M)) - key campaign face, contested Jadavpur
• Kanti Ganguly (CPI(M)) - senior Left leader, contested Raidighi
• Ashok Bhattacharya (CPI(M)) - major North Bengal face, contested Siliguri
• Biman Bose - senior alliance architect and campaign face
• Surjya Kanta Mishra - major Left campaign strategist and face

The Left, however, failed to convert visibility into seats and was effectively wiped out in the final tally, with CPI(M) and its allies failing to win Assembly seats in the 2021 result.

Congress's Main Candidates: Trying To Stay Relevant In The Sanjukta Morcha

The Congress contested as part of the Sanjukta Morcha alliance with the Left Front and ISF, focusing heavily on parts of Murshidabad, Malda and North Dinajpur, where it historically retained pockets of influence.

Top Congress Faces In 2021

• Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury - not an Assembly candidate, but the Congress's biggest Bengal campaign face
• Abu Hena - Suti
• Nizamuddin Khan - English Bazar
• Mostaque Alam - Harishchandrapur
• Nepal Mahato - Baghmundi
• Byron Biswas - Salar (later became politically notable after 2021)

Even with familiar regional faces, the Congress failed to win seats in 2021, showing how sharply Bengal politics had shifted into a TMC vs BJP framework.

ISF's Entry Made Abbas Siddiqui One Of The Most Watched New Players

The Indian Secular Front (ISF) was the most talked-about new entrant in the 2021 election, led by Abbas Siddiqui, who quickly became one of the most discussed political figures in the campaign after aligning with the Left and Congress under the Sanjukta Morcha banner.

Top ISF Faces In 2021

• Abbas Siddiqui - party founder and biggest face, though not the only constituency focus
• Nawsad Siddique - Bhangar

ISF's cluster of candidates in South 24 Parganas and minority-heavy belts became central to the alliance's strategy

In the end, the ISF emerged as the only party in the Sanjukta Morcha bloc to win a seat, with Nawsad Siddique winning Bhangar, making him one of the most politically significant first-time winners of the 2021 election.

The Biggest VIP Constituencies Of 2021

For a "top players" article, the most important way to understand the election is through the seats that became symbolic battlegrounds.

Top VIP Seats In 2021 West Bengal

• Nandigram - Mamata Banerjee (TMC) vs Suvendu Adhikari (BJP) vs Minakshi Mukherjee (CPI(M))
• Bhawanipur - Rudranil Ghosh (BJP) in a high-profile Kolkata contest
• Tollyganj - Aroop Biswas (TMC) vs Babul Supriyo (BJP)
• Kolkata Port - Firhad Hakim (TMC)
• Ballygunge - Subrata Mukherjee (TMC)
• Entally - Swarna Kamal Saha (TMC) vs Priyanka Tibrewal (BJP)
• Chunchura - Locket Chatterjee (BJP)
• Asansol Dakshin - Agnimitra Paul (BJP)
• Krishnanagar Uttar - Mukul Roy (BJP)

What 2021's Top Players Tell Us Ahead Of The 2026 West Bengal Elections

The 2021 West Bengal election showed that while party structures matter, star candidates still shaped the campaign narrative in a major way.

Mamata Banerjee remained the undisputed central figure of the election despite losing Nandigram

Suvendu Adhikari emerged as the BJP's most important state-level leader after defeating her

The BJP's expanded bench of celebrity, turncoat and central-backed candidates helped it become the principal opposition

The Left and Congress still had recognisable faces, but their inability to convert visibility into seats showed how much Bengal had become bipolar

ISF's Abbas Siddiqui and Nawsad Siddique proved that smaller players could still matter in specific regions

For the 2026 Assembly election, many of these names, or the political legacies they created, will remain central to the state's electoral story. In that sense, the 2021 "top players" list is not just a historical snapshot, it is the starting point for understanding the next Bengal battle.

The Bottom Line

The 2021 West Bengal Assembly election was driven by a clear set of marquee faces across parties. From Mamata Banerjee and Suvendu Adhikari to the BJP's rising state-level leaders, the Left's younger and veteran mix, Congress's regional holdouts and the ISF's new leadership, the election's top players shaped not just the campaign but the long-term political narrative that still defines Bengal ahead of 2026.