The All India Trinamool Congress won re-election in West Bengal, against a joint opposition slate fielded by the Indian National Congress and the Left Front.

It won 211 of the 294 seats on offer.

That left it 63 seats clear of a majority.

The AITC took 71.8% of the seats on 44.9% of the vote.

The CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Indian National Congress, historic rivals since the 1970s, contested as allies. The Left Front released a first list of 116 candidates on 7 March 2016 and a second of 84 three days later, coordinating seat allocation with Congress rather than fielding rival candidates in most seats.¹

The Election Commission announced the poll the same week, adding Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail machines to EVMs in 22 constituencies. Polling ran over six phases, from 4 April to 5 May.²

Trinamool released its own candidate list on 5 March, fielding former Indian national football team captain Bhaichung Bhutia from the Siliguri seat; he finished second among 11 candidates there.³

An under-construction flyover collapsed at Girish Park in Kolkata on 31 March, four days before the first phase of polling, killing dozens. Mamata Banerjee and opposition leaders, including Congress's Rahul Gandhi, visited the site and made public statements as the incident became a campaign talking point.⁴

The AITC extended its own run in office.

This was its 2nd consecutive win.

The single biggest movement ran from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to the AITC, covering 31 of the 96 seats that changed hands.

Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, moved -1.6 pp from the previous election.

The closest race was at Murarai, West Bengal, decided by 280 votes.

Keshpur, West Bengal saw the election's widest margin — how far ahead the winner finished, over whoever came second — winning by 49.4% of the vote.

Turnout ranged from 90.9% at Narayangarh, West Bengal down to 53.7% at Jorasanko, West Bengal.

Sujapur, West Bengal drew the most candidates of any seat, 15, well above the 11 names on the ballot at Siliguri, where footballer Bhaichung Bhutia stood for Trinamool.³

A national leadership split inside the Communist Party of India in 1964 produced a separate registered party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist).⁵

The Left Front it led governed West Bengal for 34 years from 1977, until the AITC ended that run in 2011.⁶⁷