Press Release: West Bengal Assembly Election 2026: Analysis of Criminal Background, Financial, Education, Gender and other details of Winning Candidates

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Press Release

Date: May 6, 2026

Dear Friends,

Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and West Bengal Election Watch have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 292 out of 293 winning candidates in the West Bengal 2026 Assembly Elections. Elections in Falta constituency have been cancelled. 1 BJP winning candidate namely Arjun Singh from Noapara constituency was not analysed due to an unclear affidavit uploaded on the ECI website at the time of making of this report.

The full reports in English and Hindi can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/West-Bengal-Assembly-Elections-2026-Criminal-and-Financial-background-details-of-Winning-Candidates

Summary and Highlights

Figure: Final Party Position

Criminal Background

Winning Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of the 292 winning candidates analysed in 2026 190(65%) winning candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. Out of 292 MLAs analysed during West Bengal Assembly elections in 2021, 142(49%) MLAs had declared criminal cases against themselves.

Winning Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 170(58%) winning candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. Out of 292 MLAs analysed during West Bengal Assembly elections in 2021, 113 (39%) MLAs had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Figure: Comparison of declared criminal cases of MLAs of 2011, 2016, 2021 and winning candidates 2026

Winning Candidates with Declared Cases Related to Murder: 14 winning candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302) against themselves.

Winning Candidates with Declared Cases Related to Attempt to Murder: 54 winning candidates have declared cases related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) and (BNS Section-109) against themselves.

Winning Candidates with Declared Cases Related to Crime Against Women: 63 winning candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 63 winning candidates, 2 winning candidates have declared cases related to rape (IPC Section-376) and person committing rape repeatedly on the same woman (IPC Section- 376(2)(n)).

Party Wise Winning Candidates with Criminal Cases: 152(74%) out of 206 winning candidates from BJP, 34(43%) out of 80 winning candidates from AITC, 2 (100%) out of 2 winning candidates from Aam Janata Unnayan Party, 1(100%) out of 1 winning candidate from CPI(M) and 1 (100%) out of 1 winning candidate from All India Secular Front have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits. It is noted that the INC won 2 seats, and both winning candidates have clean backgrounds with zero criminal cases.

Party Wise Winning Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 141(68%) out of 206 winning candidates from BJP, 25(31%) out of 80 winning candidates from AITC, 2 (100%) out of 2 winning candidates from Aam Janata Unnayan Party, 1(100%) out of 1 winning candidate from CPI(M) and 1 (100%) out of 1 winning candidate from All India Secular Front have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Winning Candidates with Criminal Cases

Financial Background

Crorepati Winning Candidates: Out of the 292 winning candidates analysed, 178 (61%) are crorepatis. Out of 292 MLAs analysed during West Bengal assembly elections 2021, 158(54%) MLAs were crorepati.

Figure: Percentage of Crorepati MLAs 2011, 2016, 2021 and Winning Candidates 2026

Party-wise crorepati winning candidates: 114(55%) out of 206 winning candidates from BJP, 59(74%) out of 80 winning candidates from AITC, 2 (100%) out of 2 winning candidates from Aam Janata Unnayan Party, 2(100%) out of 2 winning candidates from INC and 1(100%) out of 1 winning candidate from CPI(M) have declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

Figure: Party wise Percentage of Crorepati Winning Candidates

Share of Wealth Among Winning Candidates: The table given below shows the share of wealth among winning candidates in West Bengal Assembly Elections, 2026:

Value of assets (Rs.)	No. of winning candidates	Percentage of winning candidates
Rs. 10 crores and above	27	9%
Rs. 5 crores to Rs. 10 crores	32	11%
Rs. 1 crore to Rs. 5 crores	119	41%
Rs. 20 lakhs Rs. 1 crore	81	28%
less than Rs. 20 lakhs	33	11%

Table: Share of Wealth Among winning candidates

Total Assets of Winning Candidates: The total assets of 292 winning candidates are Rs. 1,091 Crores.

Average Assets: The average of assets per winning candidates in the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026 is Rs 3.73 Crores. The average of assets per MLA in the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021 was Rs 2.53 crore.

Figure: Comparison of Average Assets (Rs. in Crores) 2011, 2016, 2021 vs 2026

Party Wise Average Assets: The average assets per winning candidate for 206 BJP winning candidates is Rs 2.97 Crores, 80 AITC winning candidates have average assets of Rs 5.36 Crores, 2 INC Winning candidates have average assets worth Rs 17.92 Crores and 2 Aam Janata Unnayan Party Winning candidates have average assets of Rs. 4.44 crore.

High Asset Winning Candidates: The top three winning candidates with high assets are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Dilip Saha	Murshidabad	Nabagram (SC)	BJP	16,58,96,618	26,45,00,000	43,03,96,618 43 Crore+	Y
2	Ahmed Javed Khan	South 24 Parganas	Kasba	AITC	15,00,23,826	24,53,30,000	39,53,53,826 39 Crore+	Y
3	Bayron Biswas	Murshidabad	Sagardighi	AITC	17,34,93,079	16,07,29,131	33,42,22,210 33 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three winning candidates with highest declared assets

Low Asset Winning Candidates: The details of three winning candidates with the lowest assets are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Chiran Bera	Howrah	Uluberia Uttar (SC)	BJP	17,768	0	17,768 17 Thou+	Y
2	Koushik Chowdhury	Uttar Dinajpur	Raiganj	BJP	31,847	0	31,847 31 Thou+	Y
3	Rekha Patra	North 24 Parganas	Hingalganj (SC)	BJP	96,725	0	96,725 96 Thou+	Y

Table: Three winning candidates with lowest declared assets

Winning Candidates with High Liabilities: 34 winning candidates have declared liabilities of Rs 1 crore and above, and the details of the top 3 winning candidates are as follows:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Total Assets (Rs)	Liabilities (Rs)	Disputed liabilities (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Ahmed Javed Khan	South 24 Parganas	Kasba	AITC	39,53,53,826 39 Crore+	43,72,40,035 43 Crore+	0	Y
2	Motab Shaikh	Murshidabad	Farakka	INC	17,02,39,870 17 Crore+	13,59,27,098 13 Crore+	0	Y
3	Dipankar Jana	South 24 Parganas	Kakdwip	BJP	22,47,43,165 22 Crore+	10,27,44,080 10 Crore+	61,27,604 61 Lacs+	Y

Table: Top three winning candidates with high liabilities

Winning Candidates with High Income as Declared in ITR*: The table below shows 3 winning candidates who have declared highest income in their Income Tax Returns.

S.No.	Name	Party Name	Constituency	District	Total Assets (Rs)	Self Source of Income	Spouse's Source of Income	The financial year for which the last income tax return has been filed by winning candidates	Total income shown by winning candidates in ITR (Self+Spouse+Dependent) (Rs)	Self-income shown by winning candidates in ITR (Rs)
1	Sharadwat Mukherjee	BJP	Bidhannagar	North 24 Parganas	15,72,26,453 15 Crore+	Medical Practice	Medical Practice and Salary	2024-2025	4,44,80,240 4 Crore+	4,14,83,140 4 Crore+
2	Firhad Hakim	AITC	Kolkata Port	Kolkata South	22,57,53,159 22 Crore+	Business Bank Interest, Salary from Govt of W.B & Other	Business Bank Interest and Other	2024-2025	3,82,57,201 3 Crore+	1,71,62,824 1 Crore+
3	Pulak Roy	AITC	Uluberia Dakshin	Howrah	8,68,36,465 8 Crore+	Honorarium Salary, Business and Bank Interest	Business Income and Bank Interest	2024-2025	2,86,29,938 2 Crore+	1,18,50,496 1 Crore+

Table: Top 3 winning candidates with high income as declared in income tax returns

*Total income includes income of self, spouse and dependents

Other Background Details

Education Details of Winning Candidates: 92(32%) winning candidates have declared their educational qualification between 5^th pass and 12^th pass while 185 (63%) winning candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate and above. 9 winning candidates are Diploma holders. 5 winning candidates have declared their education just literate and 1 winning candidate has declared her educational qualification as illiterate.

Age Details of Winning Candidates: 46(16%) winning candidates have declared their age to be between 25 and 40 years while 184 (63%) winning candidates have declared their age to be between 41 and 60 years. There are 59 (20%) winning candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years. There are 3 winning candidates who have declared their age to be above 80 years.

Gender Details of Winning Candidates: Out of 292 winning candidates analysed, 37 (13%) winning candidates are women. In 2021, out of 292 MLAs analysed, 40 (14%) MLAs were women.