In April and May 2026, India held assembly elections across five states and one union territory simultaneously — the most sweeping state-level electoral exercise in years.West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu,Kerala, and Puducherry all delivered their verdicts. Parties changed. Governments fell. One thing, however, remained almost entirely stable: the number of winning candidates walking into their new legislatures with criminal cases trailing behind them.

In West Bengal, 190 of 292 winning candidates — 65 percent — declared criminal cases, up sharply from 49 percent in 2021. In Kerala, the figure was a staggering 84 percent — 114 of 135 newly elected MLAs had declared criminal cases, compared to 71 percent in 2021. Tamil Nadu returned 126 of 233 winning candidates — 54 percent — with declared cases. Assam, the relative outlier, saw 17 percent of winners declare criminal cases — a decline from 27 percent in 2021.

The names below represent the most significant individual stories from each state — politicians who won big despite, or in some cases because of, the records they carry.

Party: BJP | State: West Bengal | Constituency: Bhabanipur & Nandigram

The most watched battle of the 2026 season was not between two parties — it was between two individuals. BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari defeated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in her own bastion of Bhabanipur by over 15,000 votes, the biggest political upset of the entire 2026 election cycle. He simultaneously retained Nandigram — making him a double-constituency winner and the undisputed face of a new Bengal.

Adhikari currently faces 25 criminal cases, most of them filed after his dramatic exit from the Trinamool Congress in December 2020. The charges span criminal intimidation, attempt to murder, rioting, promoting enmity between groups, and hurting religious sentiments, with his 2026 affidavit also listing charges of sexual harassment and theft. His name has also surfaced in connection with the Saradha chit fund scandal, with a petition by Saradha chief Sudipto Sen accusing him of extortion and using his influence to benefit the company.

The Calcutta High Court at one stage stayed 26 FIRs against him and ruled that future complaints would require prior court approval. Later, 15 FIRs were quashed while five others were transferred to a Special Investigation Team. He dismisses every case as political persecution. Bhabanipur delivered its verdict on that argument in his favour.

Party: BJP | State: West Bengal | Constituency: Mathabhanga

Former Union minister and BJP candidate Nisith Pramanik, who declared 16 criminal cases in his 2026 affidavit, won from the reserved seat of Mathabhanga in Cooch Behar by a commanding margin of over 43,000 votes.

The cases against him range from attempt to murder and rioting to house trespass and unlawful assembly, with nine of the 14 cases on record in 2024 having been registered between 2018 and 2020 — the period immediately following his departure from the Trinamool Congress. Pramanik began his political career as a TMC youth wing leader and one of the party's key musclemen in Cooch Behar. He gained so much clout that he was able to corner most other TMC district leaders, and during the 2018 panchayat elections, fielded around 300 independent candidates against TMC nominees. He joined BJP in 2019 and has not looked back since — winning a Lok Sabha seat, serving as Union Minister of State for Home, and now returning as an MLA.

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