West Bengal Parliamentary Election 2026: As the Congress election season approaches the east, so does defection among political leaders. MLA Tapasi Mondal of the Hallia constituency has become the second turn of her political career. Haldia MLA was elected as a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxism) in 2016, but later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2020. On March 10, 2025, Tapasi Mondal joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) led by CM Mamata Banerjee, a gathering she issued a condemnation in 2021.
The next legislative parliamentary election in West Bengal is expected to be held in March or April 2026. The election will decide on the composition of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, which consists of 294 members, in the next five-year term. The current term of the component will end on May 7, 2026.
MLA Tapasi Mondal joined the TMC in Kolkata on Monday, March 10.
Tapasi Mondal was fired from CPI (M)
Tapasi Mondal was nominated as a candidate for the left front coalition in West Bengal in 2016, from the Haldia constituency in the Purba Medinipur district.
Tapasi Mondal’s main opponent is TMC candidate Madhurima Mandal.
The results of the Congress election made Tapasi Mondal a winner and voted by more than 21,000 votes, with 50.17% of the votes, 39.53% of the votes in favor of Madhurima Mandal.
In December 2020, Mondal announced his intention to join the BJP.
Tapasi Mondal helps BJP to enter CPM stronghold – Haldia
Once a stronghold of the Communist Party of India (Marxism), Haldia, along with neighboring Khejuri, saw violence during the Nandigram anti-land acquisition protests, pushing the TMC to power and witnessing the political loss of 2021.
Haldia MLA of Tapasi Mandal on the front left was a BJP candidate at the time, Suvendu Adhikari secured the TMC in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll and was also ruled as a star candidate for the BJP.
In 2021, Bangladesh CM and TMC champion Mamata Banerjee expressed her affinity for Haldia, recalling the past struggle with CPM. She warned that the BJP government would endanger the town’s port and steel industry and threaten local livelihoods. However, in February of that year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the infrastructure project ₹Haldia Rs 47 billion.
Tapasi Mondal accused TMC of throwing bombs at her home
On January 29, 2021, Tapasi Mondal claimed that “TMC Goons” dropped a rough bomb in the residence of Purba Medinipur in an attempt to “create fear of mental illness” ahead of the 2021 Bangladesh parliamentary elections.
In 2021, Saffron Camp claimed that Haldia had been witnessing political riots since Suvendu Adhikari, which had played a considerable influence in the region, thus moving from the ruling TMC to the BJP.
