Mamata Banerjee had exhorted her party leaders and workers last Saturday claiming that her Trinamool Congress party was coming to power for a fourth consecutive time by winning more than 200 seats, accusing the BJP of misleading people with “fictitious” exit poll results for financial gains.
Even on Monday afternoon when the trends in the West Bengal Assembly elections showed the saffron party surging ahead, she struck a defiant note. Releasing a video message on X titled “Urgent Message”, the Trinamool Congress supremo appealed directly to the party’s counting agents and candidates, asking them to remain vigilant and not lose hope despite early setbacks.
“Requesting everyone not to leave the counting centres... they will show where BJP will lead... stay at the counting centre,” she said, alleging that initial rounds may be skewed. Mamata Banerjee has always been a street fighter even when her party recorded a historic loss against her arch rival BJP.
“I want to tell our counting agents, don’t feel bad. Fight is not over yet. Wait and watch,” she added.
Crumbling fortress
As the day progressed, Bengal saw the outgoing Chief Minister’s fortress crumble. Moreover, the high-voltage contest at Bhabanipur Assembly seat turned on its head, with Banerjee slipping behind BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari after sharp swings, capping a steady erosion of her early lead in one of the state’s most closely watched battles.
Eventually, she lost the battle. After 17 rounds of counting, Banerjee was trailing by 6,226 votes, polling 54,728 votes against Adhikari’s 60,954, according to Election Commission data.
It’s the second time Adhikari, once her close aide, defeated the Trinamool Supremo. In the 2021 Assembly elections, Adhikari defeated Banerjee in Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district by a slender margin of 1,956 votes.
However, Banerjee had led the Trinamool Congress to a sweeping victory statewide and later re-entered the Assembly through a by-election in Bhabanipur, winning by a margin of 58,000 votes, reaffirming the seat as one of her strongest bastions. In the last Assembly elections, the BJP won 77 seats, while the Trinamool Congress won in 215 constituencies in the 294 West Bengal Assembly.
The saffron sweep
The BJP, however, drew confidence from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when the Trinamool Congress secured a relatively modest lead of 8,291 votes from the Bhabanipur Assembly segment amid allegations of corruption and signs of anti-incumbency.
Significantly, the saffron party this time breached South Bengal and Kolkata, considered TMC’s stronghold and heartland, ending the party’s 15-year rule.
Riding on the strong anti-incumbency wave and major corruption allegations against Trinamool, the opposition BJP has completely reversed its slide in Bengal in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections when it had led in 90 Assembly segments with a vote share of 38.7 per cent and won 12 seats. Till the time of going to press, the BJP had cornered a vote share of 45.76 per cent and was ahead or winning a whopping 207 seats in the total 293 seats for which elections were held. The incumbent TMC was at 80 seats with a vote share of 40.81 per cent, a steep fall from 45.8 per cent vote share it had garnered in 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress had registered a historic victory in West Bengal in 2011, ending the 34-year rule of the Left Front.
Published on May 4, 2026