In a significant development, Governor RN Ravi on Thursday dissolved West Bengal Assembly with effect from May 7. The development comes as Mamata Banerjee refused to resign from the post of chief minister after poll debacle. Based on the official notification issued in the Kolkata Gazette, the dissolution of the assembly comes after the term of the Trinamool Congress ended.
Read the official notification
The official order, issued by the Governor, invokes sub-clause (b) of Clause (2) of Article 174 of the Constitution of India, which empowers the Governor to dissolve the state Legislative Assembly.
“In exercise of the power conferred on me by sub-clause (b) of Clause (2) of Article 174 of the Constitution of India, I hereby dissolve the Legislative Assembly of West Bengal with effect from 07th of May, 2026,” the notification said.
The notification from the Governor’s Office was published in an extraordinary issue of the official gazette by the Department of Parliamentary Affairs, Government of West Bengal, for general information.
The dissolution of the assembly comes after the declaration of results in the 2026 Assembly elections, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party secured a decisive mandate, winning 206 seats in the 294-member House — well above the majority mark of 148.
Mamata Banerjee refuses to resign as chief minister
Earlier, alleging that the West Bengal assembly poll verdict was "not a people's mandate but a conspiracy", TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday refused to resign as chief minister, opening up a constitutional grey zone and a political confrontation in the state.
A day after the BJP sealed a landslide victory with 207 seats in the 294-member assembly, ending the Trinamool Congress's uninterrupted 15-year rule, Banerjee dismissed the outcome as "engineered" and asserted that her party was fighting the Election Commission, not the BJP.
The TMC could only manage 80 seats.
"Why should I step down? We have not lost. The mandate has been looted. Where does the question of resignation arise?" she said, doubling down on her refusal to vacate the office.
Mamata Banerjee alleges large-scale irregularities in counting
"The question of my resignation does not arise, as we were defeated not by a public mandate but by a conspiracy…I did not lose, I will not go to Lok Bhavan," she asserted at a packed press conference, her tone oscillating between grievance and combativeness. Banerjee alleged large-scale irregularities in counting, claiming nearly 100 seats were "looted" and that the pace of counting was deliberately slowed to sap her party's morale.
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