Voting is underway for the crucial 2026 West Bengal and Tamil Nadu assembly elections, with actors, politicians and other voters lining up to exercise their franchise. While West Bengal votes in the first of the two phases, the polls for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections are held in one phase.
In West Bengal, there are 294 seats up for grabs, and 234 for Tamil Nadu, making 148 and 118 seats the majority mark for both states, respectively, which the party or alliance needs to secure in order to form the government. Track Tamil Nadu election voting updates here
Voting time, voter turnout and other key details
Voting time: Voting for the 2026 West Bengal and Tamil Nadu Assembly elections began at 7 am on Thursday and is expected to end at 6 pm. In Tamil Nadu, voting is underway for all 234 seats, while 152 assembly constituencies across 16 districts in West Bengal are gearing up for polls in the first phase.
Result date: The counting of votes for the 2026 West Bengal and Tamil Nadu elections will be held on May 4, according to the schedule announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Votes will also be counted in the assembly elections in Kerala, Assam and the union territory of Puducherry on May 4, as well as bypolls in eight assembly constituencies in six states. Track voting updates in West Bengal elections here
Bypolls voting schedule: As per the EC schedule, five seats in Goa (Punda), Karnataka (Bajalkot, Devanagiri), Nagaland (Koredang), and Tripura (Dharmanagar) will be voted on on April 9, while three seats in Gujarat (Umrith) and Maharashtra (Rahori, Baramati) will be voted on on April 23.
Voting percentage in Tamil Nadu: Tamil Nadu recorded 56.81 per cent voter turnout till 1 pm, according to data shared by the Election Commission of India. While Tirupur topped the charts with 62.97 per cent vote share, Kanyakumari recorded the lowest voter turnout of 50.35 per cent.
Voting percentage in West Bengal: Bengal recorded a voter turnout of 62.18 per cent as of 1pm, according to data shared by the Election Commission of India. While Paschim Medinipur topped the charts with 65.77 per cent votes, Malda recorded the lowest turnout at 58.45 per cent.
