Assembly Elections LIVE: Election Commission publishes fourth supplementary voter list in West Bengal

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has published the fourth supplementary voter list after SIR adjudications in poll-bound West Bengal, an official said. There was, however, no information from the ECI on the total number of deletions or inclusions.

“The fourth list has been released. We cannot tell anything else other than this,” the official said on Sunday.

Around 60 lakh names were marked as “under adjudication” in the final voters’ list published on February 28. Following that, 705 judicial officers were engaged to determine whether these names would be kept or deleted from the electoral rolls.

- PTI

The Congress on Sunday fielded several heavyweights for the West Bengal Assembly election 2026, including former party leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and former Rajya Sabha MP Mausam Benazir Noor.

The party, which has decided to contest all the 294 seats in the State, announced candidates for 284 of them, effectively ending a decade-long electoral understanding with the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front, which has allied with the Indian Secular Front (ISF).

In the past five years, the M.K. Stalin government has implemented several welfare schemes with far-reaching impact that helped uplift the lives of women as well as other sections.

It delivered on its key poll promises, such as the Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam, which entitled 1.31 crore women heads of families to receive a monthly rights grant of ₹1,000 and the Vidiyal Payanam scheme, allowing women to travel with ‘zero cost’ bus tickets in select routes.

At the same time, the government introduced schemes that did not figure in its manifesto. This included empowering schemes such as Pudhumai Penn, Tamil Pudhalvan, Naan Mudhalvan, Illam Thedi Kalvi, Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam, and Thayumanavar.

But how many of the 505 promises the DMK made in 2021 have been fulfilled? The party leaders have made varying claims about this in the past. Some leaders claimed 90% of them had been honoured.