Voting for the crucial West Bengal and Tamil Nadu assembly elections 2026 concluded with a record turnout on Thursday, with actors, politicians and other voters queueing up to exercise their franchise. While West Bengal voted for the first of the two phases, election in polling for the Tamil Nadu assembly election was conducted in a single phase.
In West Bengal, 294 seats are up for the contest and that for Tamil Nadu is 234, making 148 and 118 the majority mark for both the states, respectively, that a party or an alliance needs to secure in order to form government. Track Tamil Nadu election voting updates here
Voting time, voter turnout and other key details
-Voting time: Voting for the West Bengal and Tamil Nadu assembly elections 2026 began at 7 am on Thursday and concluded after 6 pm. In Tamil Nadu, voting was held on all 234 seats, while 152 constituencies across 16 districts of West Bengal were up for polling in the first phase.
-Result date: Counting of votes for West Bengal and Tamil Nadu elections 2026 will be held on May 4, according to the schedule announced by Election Commission of India (ECI). Votes will also be counted for assembly elections in Kerala, Assam and Union territory of Puducherry on May 4 along with bypolls to eight assembly constituencies across six states. Track West Bengal elections voting updates here
{{/usCountry}}-Result date: Counting of votes for West Bengal and Tamil Nadu elections 2026 will be held on May 4, according to the schedule announced by Election Commission of India (ECI). Votes will also be counted for assembly elections in Kerala, Assam and Union territory of Puducherry on May 4 along with bypolls to eight assembly constituencies across six states. Track West Bengal elections voting updates here
{{/usCountry}}-Bypolls voting schedule: According to the Election Commission of India (ECI) schedule, voting for five seats in Goa (Ponda), Karnataka (Bagalkote, Devanagere), Nagaland (Koridang), and Tripura (Dharmanagar) was held on April 9, while three seats in Gujarat (Umreth) and Maharashtra (Rahuri, Baramati) voted on April 23.
-Voting percentage in Tamil Nadu: Tamil Nadu recorded a voting percentage of 84.60, the highest ever, according to data shared by the ECI. Karur district topped the charts with a voter turnout of over 92 per cent, while Kanniyakumar recorded the lowest polling percentage at 75.54.
-Voting percentage in West Bengal: Bengal recorded a voting percentage of 91.68 till 6 pm, also the highest ever, according to data shared by the ECI. While Bhagavangola led the charts with 95.64 per cent voting, Kurseong recorded the lowest turnout at 84.51 per cent. "Highest ever percentage of polling in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu since Independence - ECI salutes each voter of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu," said chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.