Saffron wave sweeps across 190+ constituencies, leaving Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year grip on Bengal hanging by a thread
West Bengal is witnessing what may be its most seismic political upheaval in a generation.
As counting progressed through Monday afternoon, the Bharatiya Janata Party surged to leads in over 190 of 293 constituencies briefly kissing the 200-mark dwarfing the majority threshold of 148. The Trinamool Congress, which has governed Bengal with commanding authority since 2011, found itself clinging to leads in just 83 seats, according to analytics portal PValue data updated at 2:30 PM.
The scale of the BJP’s apparent advance cuts across geographies from North Bengal’s hills to Howrah’s industrial belt, from Sundarbans to the outskirts of Kolkata. Constituencies long considered TMC fortresses Jadavpur, Diamond Harbour, Bidhannagar showed saffron leading.
At the eye of the storm stands Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself. After trailing in early trends, she recovered to lead from Bhabanipur her personal stronghold against BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, her former aide-turned-nemesis who famously defeated her in Nandigram in 2021.
Banerjee, characteristically defiant, asked supporters to wait until sunset before drawing conclusions a signal that the TMC is not yet conceding the narrative, even as numbers paint a difficult picture.
Isolated leads for the All India Secular Front in Bhangar and Congress in Jamuria suggest the anti-TMC vote consolidated sharply around the BJP rather than splintering.
Bengal, it appears, may have chosen a new chapter.
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