Overview
- Five contests in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry will shape the year’s politics and test regional parties’ hold on their bastions.
- The BJP enters 2026 buoyed by 2025 assembly wins in Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Bihar and by a leadership reset elevating Nitin Nabin.
- Analysts cast Assam as the BJP’s single high‑stakes assembly fight, while West Bengal pits Mamata Banerjee’s TMC against an entrenched BJP opposition.
- Congress leaders tout recent Kerala local body gains as a springboard and target Assam for a turnaround, even as internal strains persist.
- The Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision has removed lakhs of names from draft rolls, drawing Opposition ‘vote theft’ claims the EC rejects, as the digital 2026 Census and upcoming delimitation and Rajya Sabha polls sharpen debates over representation.