How BJP converted a modest vote edge into a Bengal landslide

KOLKATA: The BJP has managed to grab 207 seats in the West Bengal assembly election, cementing a sweeping victory over the Trinamool Congress, which was reduced to 80 seats, after the declaration of the delayed result from Rajarhat New Town — the constituency that recorded the narrowest victory margin in this election.

Congress and the Aam Janta Unnayan Party won two seats each, while the CPM and the All India Secular Front (AISF) secured one seat each.

The final result from Rajarhat New Town came after prolonged counting, with BJP candidate Pijush Kanoria edging past Trinamool’s Tapas Chatterjee by just 316 votes in a nail-biting finish. After 18 rounds of counting, Kanoria polled 1,06,564 votes, while Chatterjee secured 1,06,248 votes.

The BJP also registered other narrow wins across the state. In Satgachi, BJP’s Agniswar Naskar defeated Trinamool’s Somashree Betal by 401 votes, while in Raina, BJP’s Subhash Patra p beat Trinamool’s Mandira Dalui by 834 votes.

The scale of BJP’s victory was reflected not just in seat share but also in vote percentage. The party improved its vote share from 38% in the 2021 assembly polls to 45.84% in 2026, a jump of nearly eight percentage points.

Trinamool, meanwhile, saw its vote share fall from 48% to 40.8%, a drop of around seven percentage points.

Despite the vote share gap between BJP and Trinamool being just about 5 percentage points — the narrowest margin between the two in the past 25 years — the BJP converted that lead into a dominant seat haul, winning more than 2.5 times the number of seats secured by the ruling party.

Geographically, the BJP’s sweep was particularly striking in several districts where it completely shut out the Trinamool. The party blanked the ruling outfit in eight districts — Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong and Darjeeling in north Bengal, and Purulia, Bankura, East Burdwan and Jhargram in the south. Trinamool managed just one seat in Cooch Behar.

The BJP’s strong performance in regions where it had already built momentum in recent elections, including north Bengal and Jangalmahal, was expected. However, its performance in the second phase of polling proved decisive in turning the contest into a landslide.

Of the 152 seats that voted in the first phase, the BJP won 109, while Trinamool secured 38.

In the second phase, 142 constituencies were scheduled to vote on April 29, though polling in Falta was countermanded and will now be held on May 21, with results expected on May 24. Excluding Falta, the BJP won 98 of the remaining 141 seats, while Trinamool managed 42.

The numbers underline the scale of BJP’s breakthrough in a state long seen as one of its toughest political battlegrounds.