West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026: The West Bengal elections are only six days away, and the political parties have fielded candidates from the sporting world. The state elections are set to take place in two phases on 23rd April and 29th April. The state elections will be held to elect all 294 members of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. Among those contesting the elections in the state, there will be a few candidates who have played different sports. The trend to field candidates from a sporting background has been growing in the past. In West Bengal, the idea of having past sportspeople to contest in the elections is due to the popularity these candidates have among the general population. Here is a look at five candidates for the West Bengal elections who played sports in the past.
BJP: Ashok Dinda in Moyna
Ashok Dinda, a former cricketer who has represented Team India in the two white-ball formats, will be contesting elections representing the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Moyna constituency. The right-arm pacer played 13 ODIs and nine T20Is for the Indian cricket team across a three-year period. In those games, Dinda picked up 29 wickets. In the Indian Premier League, he took 69 wickets in 78 games, having represented five teams. For Kolkata Knight Riders, he played 29 games, picking up 22 wickets. In domestic cricket, Dinda played for Bengal and picked up 420 wickets in 116 first-class games.
TMC: Shib Paul in Tufanganj
Shib Shankar Paul will be contesting elections for TM C in Tufanganj. Paul, too, is a former cricketer who will be contesting the upcoming West Bengal elections. The 44-year-old played for 14 years, representing Bengal at the domestic level. However, he never could make the jump from the domestic circuit to Indian colours. In 61 first-class games, the right-arm medium-pacer picked up 220 wickets. He played 69 white-ball games for the state, where he picked up 98 wickets.
TMC: Swapna Barman in Rajganj
Swapna Barman will be contesting the elections representing TMC at the Rajganj constituency. She is a former Heptathlete who represented India in different events. In 2018, she won the gold medal at the Asian Games in Jakarta. Meanwhile, she also won the gold medal in the 2017 Asian Athletic Championships. In 2019 and 2023, she won silver medals in the Asian Championships.
TMC: Bidesh Basu in Saptagram
Bidesh Basu, a former footballer for Mohun Bagan, will be contesting the state elections from Saptagram while representing TMC. The 72-year-old represented the Indian team at the international level. He played for the giant Bengali club in two stints. Starting from 1976, Bose was part of the Mohun Bagan club for more than four years. The left winger joined the club again in 1982. He won as many as 37 tournaments, including 3 titles in 1985 under his captaincy.
BJP: Leander Paes
Leander Paes is unarguably the biggest name when it comes to sportspeople contesting the West Bengal elections. The tennis legend is a great addition to the BJP party, who are trying to gain some popularity in the state. With TMC ruling the state for the past 15 years, the BJP are aiming to get in power using someone of the calibre and popularity of Leander Paes. As a player, Paes won all four tennis grand slams in men’s doubles competition and mixed doubles competitions. He also won a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He has also been felicitated with major awards, including the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award in 1996-97. This is India’s highest sporting honour.
