As West Bengal goes to the polls in a few days, the controversial women’s reservation Bill, Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, RG Kar hospital death-murder case, jobs and women’s safety have emerged as key poll campaign issues for women candidates across political parties in the State.
Campaigning is in full swing with candidates hitting the streets, addressing rallies and going door-to-door with party workers, braving the scorching heat. In Bengal, voting will be conducted in two phases on April 23 and April 29. The first phase in the State will cover 152 Assembly constituencies, and the second phase will cover 142 constituencies.
The Entally Assembly constituency in central-east Kolkata will go to the polls in the second phase. BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal is taking on Trinamool Congress’ Sandipan Saha. “The Chief Minister of the State, Mamata Banerjee, herself has opposed and blocked the women’s reservation Bill. But, in our manifesto for West Bengal, we have pledged to ensure a 33 per cent reservation for women in State government jobs,” Tibrewal told businessline.
Last Friday, the Opposition defeated the Constitutional Amendment Bill that sought to redistribute Lok Sabha seats based on the 2011 census to expedite the implementation of women’s reservation. It failed to meet the necessary two-thirds majority needed for amendment.
Banerjee alleged that efforts to link bills on amending the women’s reservation law with the delimitation mechanism were part of a conspiracy by the BJP government at the Centre to remove names from voter lists and introduce the National Registrar of Citizens in India. “The RG Kar hospital case exposed how unsafe women are in West Bengal. The Chief Minister didn’t try to uncover the truth in the junior doctor’s rape-muder case, she tried to bury it. I am telling voters in my constituency that women here have no safety or security. Trinamool is even targeting the victim’s mother for contesting this election seeking justice for her daughter,” said Tibrewal.
The BJP has fielded Ratna Debnath, mother of the RG Kar Hospital rape and murder victim, to contest the Assembly elections from Panihati constituency in North 24 Parganas district. CPI(M) central committee member Meenakshi Mukherjee, who has been contesting from Uttarpara seat in the Hooghly district, said that apart from safety, jobs for women is the main issue for her poll campaign. “I am talking about safety and jobs for the women in the State.”
“Women reservation was first ensured in municipalities and panchayats in West Bengal by the erstwhile Left Front government. But the BJP is talking about women reservation to achieve its other political goals,” said Mukherjee.
deletion of names
Senior Trinamool Congress leader and State Minister Shashi Panja said the main poll campaign issue in her Shyampukur constituency in North Kolkata is the “significant deletion” of women voters in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. “Women are scared in my constituency after their names got deleted from the voters list. They are very puzzled after this massive disenfranchisement,” Panja told businessline.
“I am telling voters in my constituency that the BJP is trying to mislead them by promising to provide two-fold of the amount to the women that we are giving under Lakshmir Bhandar. They are not providing ₹10,000 to women in Bihar after coming to power,” she said.
Notably, the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal has fielded 52 women, out of the total 291 candidates, in this Assembly elections. Against the 18 per cent women candidates for TMC, the BJP’s women candidates account for around 11 per cent. The saffron party has fielded 33 women out of the 294 seats.
Published on April 20, 2026