West Bengal polls: Congress's full list of 284 candidates out, Pradip Prasad to take on Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur

The Congress on Sunday released its full list of 284 candidates for the 2026 Assembly polls in West Bengal, which will be held in two phases—on April 23 and April 29—with votes to be counted on May 4.

The national party aims to make inroads into the state by contesting solo this time, after a terrible loss in the 2021 elections, when it had contested alongside the Left front, and failed to win a single seat, while the TMC won 213.

The announcement of candidates for the West Bengal polls comes a day after Congress's top brass held a meeting discussing the list.

Five-time Lok Sabha MP and Congress veteran Adhir Ranjan Choudhary has been fielded from Berhampore in a bid to revive the party's traditional strongholds in the central and northern parts of the state.

Notably, Chowdhury first won the Nabagram seat in 1996, leaving it in 1999 to switch to Berhampore, where he won five consecutive Lok Sabha elections till he lost the seat to former cricketer and TMC candidate Yusuf Pathan in 2024.

With the nomination of Chowdhury, the Berhampore seat sees a high-profile triangular fight between Chowdhury's entry sets up a high-profile triangular fight between sitting BJP MLA Subrata Moitra and TMC candidate Naru Gopal Mukherjee.

The national party has also fielded Pradip Prasad in Bhabhanipur, the stronghold of CM Mamata Banerjee that has given her three wins in the past.

The seat will also be hotly contested by BJP heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated Banerjee from his stronghold of Nandigram in the 2021 elections.

Notably, for Kharagpur Sadar, the Congress has fielded Papiya Chakraborty against the saffron party's pick, Dilip Ghosh.

The list also includes Madhap Rai from Darjeeling, former MP Mausam Noor from Malatipur, Abdul Hannan from Sujapur, Souvik Mukherjee from Asansol Dakshin and Prasenjit Puitandi from Asansol Uttar.