The West Bengal Assembly has a total of 294 seats and the term of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government comes to an end on May 30.
The first phase polling in West Bengal will be held in the southwestern districts of Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, West Midnapore and East Midnapore on March 27. The second phase, on April 1, will be held in parts of Bankura, West Midnapore, East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas. The third phase, on April 6, will cover Howrah, Hooghly and parts of South 24-Parganas.
The fourth phase elections, apart from covering parts of Howrah, Hooghly, South 24-Parganas, will also be held in the north Bengal districts of Alipurduar and Cooch Behar, in April 10.
The fifth phase, to be held on April 17, will be conducted in parts of North 24-Parganas, Nadia and East Burdwan in south Bengal and Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri in north Bengal. The sixth phase is scheduled for April 22 and will cover parts of North 24-Parganas, Nadia, East Burdwan, and Uttar Dinajpur.
The seventh phase polls on April 26 are in the central Bengal districts of Malda and Murshidabad, southwestern district of Paschim Bardhaman, northern district of Dakhin Dinajpur as well as southern Kolkata.
The final phase polling is on April 29, covering parts of Malda, Murshidabad, Birbhum and northern and central Kolkata.
In the first two phases, 30 constituencies each would go to the polls, while in the third and fourth 31 and 44 constituencies will be covered. The largest number of constituencies will go for the polls in the fifth phase, with 45 seats, and in the sixth, seventh and eighth phases, 43, 36, and 35 constituencies, respectively, will be covered.