India, March 17 -- West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will contest the 2026 assembly elections from her current seat of Bhabanipur, setting up a direct contest again with the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari, to whom she had lost in Nandigram last time. She had to later enter the House via a bypoll in Kolkata's Bhabanipur in 2021.

The BJP has already declared Adhikari as its candidate in both Bhabanipur and Nandigram, itching for a direct contest. This also gave heft to the theory that he may be the CM face of the Centre's ruling party.

Her name figures on the list of candidates that she declared on Tuesday.

Even after her loss last time, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee became the CM nonetheless as the Constitution gives six months for winni...