The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is poised for a big win in West Bengal and is all set to oust Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) from power. The party, which campaigned intensively for the Bengal polls, and fielded its top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has comfortably crossed the majority mark of 148 in the West Bengal Assembly.
As per the latest trends, the saffron party is leading on 193 of the 294 seats in West Bengal, which is way more than double than what it had won in the 2021 assembly elections. On the other hand, the TMC, which was seeking for a fourth straight term, is ahead on 94 seats. It is worth noting that Banerjee's party had received a two-third majority in Bengal in 2021.
Most of the BJP leaders, including Suvendu Adhikari, were leading from their seats. In Nandigram, which is considered Adhikari's bastion, the BJP is leading. A neck-and-neck contest is also underway in Bhabanipur between Adhikari and Banerjee. Meanwhile, other leaders such as Nisith Pramanik and Ratna Debnath, the mother of RG Kar rape-murder victim, are also leading from their respective constituencies.
BJP leaders have credited the party's success to PM Modi, while Adhikari has called it a consolidation of Hindu votes. Adhikari, who contested from two seats: Nandigram and Bhabanipur, further said that a government that will protect 'Sanatan Dharma' is coming to power in West Bengal, which has the second largest legislative assembly in India.
"This time there's a Hindu consolidation, and the way Muslims vote for TMC, they have not done that this time. Some votes have gone to the pro-Muslim party. BJP has also got some in small amounts," Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in the incumbent West Bengal Assembly, told news agency ANI.
Notably, the results fall in line with the exit poll predictions, which had predicted a majority for the BJP. However, only Today's Chanakya had correctly predicted the margin of BJP's victory.
Coming to the 2026, the polling here was held in two phases on April 23 and 29, and the state witnessed a voter turnout of 92.47 per cent. The first saw polling on 152 seats and the 142 constituencies went for voting in phase two.
The elections saw intense campaigning by the BJP and the TMC, with both parties hurling allegations against each other. These elections were also being held amid the backdrop of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which had only polarised the campaign. The TMC alleged that through the SIR, the BJP and the Election Commission have disenfranchised genuine voters, but the saffron party maintained that the drive was necessary to remove bogus voters and infiltrators.
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