Examining the polling data by drilling it down to constituency and booth levels reveals troubling trends in the recently concluded Assembly polls in West Bengal. The outcome is highly questionable for many visible reasons: large-scale deletions through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise; biased implementation of the Model Code of Conduct; the unusually large and…
Last Updated:May 05, 2026, 10:31 IST While BJP wave swept the majority of Bengal, a distinct picture emerged in the remaining six seats, which were won by candidates from the Left, Congress, and regional parties. Humayun Kabir, the former TMC MLA who launched the Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP), won two seats in Murshidabad. (File…
Last Updated:May 05, 2026, 10:31 IST With Delhi flipped and Bengal breached, BJP has now defeated two leaders who once appeared politically invincible in their political strongholds Mamata Banerjee (left) and Arvind Kejriwal. (PTI) Months after defeating Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has now unseated Mamata…
Last Updated:May 05, 2026, 15:49 IST In several constituencies, the scale is even starker—the number of voters declared ineligible or deleted was 2-3 times higher than the margin of victory In 187 constituencies with significant deletions (5,000+ names), the BJP won or led in 119 seats. (PTI) The 2026 West Bengal election has thrown up…
Readings of the West Bengal election results, with the BJP sweeping to power in a state it had long coveted, and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress losing its bastion of 15 years, have swung between “Hindu consolidation” and “anti-incumbency”, when not pointing to the “SIR”. All three explanations have truth in them. But all three are…
It is not every day that the US President commends a foreign leader for winning a provincial election. So it was a surprise when the White House spokesman conveyed Donald Trump’s congratulatory message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his “historic and decisive election victory” in West Bengal this month. But this was no ordinary…
West Bengal CM Announcement Updates: Even after the Trinamool Congress suffered a massive defeat in the recently-concluded West Bengal assembly election, Mamata Banerjee has refused to resign as Chief Minister. Supporting her denial, Banerjee alleged that the West Bengal assembly poll verdict was “not a people’s mandate but a conspiracy”. The BJP, meanwhile, dismissed her…
Who will win the election for the new West Bengal Legislative Assembly? Perhaps, instead of this, we ought to ask: Who should win in Bengal? Before we delve into this question, we must reflect on why the gaze of Delhi’s analytical circles is so disproportionately fixed upon Bengal. Elections were also held in Kerala, Tamil…
On May 4, 2026, when the news confirmed the BJP’s historic 207-seat mandate in West Bengal, the sociopolitical climate in Kolkata was marked by a high level of anxiety. Rather than celebrations, clashes erupted all over the State in the tradition of violence that has plagued Bengal after every election. Trinamool Congress offices were attacked…
