The BJP is leading in 105 seats. The Trinamool trails at 95.
On the morning of May 4th, West Bengal began counting the votes that would determine whether fifteen years of Trinamool Congress rule under Mamata Banerjee would yield to a BJP seeking its first foothold in the state. The contest arrived shadowed by the deletion of 90 lakh names from the voter rolls — a process whose legitimacy remained bitterly disputed — and by a personal rivalry between Banerjee and her former lieutenant Suvendu Adhikari that had come to embody the state's deeper political fracture. In the early hours, the BJP led in 105 seats to Trinamool's 95, with neither party yet within reach of the 148 needed to govern, leaving Bengal suspended between continuity and transformation.
- The BJP, a party that had never governed West Bengal, crossed the halfway mark in early seat tallies, signaling a potential historic realignment in Indian regional politics.
- The legitimacy of the election itself was under strain — 90 lakh voter deletions, alleged power outages at counting centers, and clashes between party agents at Bhabanipur's counting booths cast a long shadow over the proceedings.
- Mamata Banerjee, seeking a fourth consecutive term, found herself trailing in her own constituency against Adhikari, the man who had already defeated her once in Nandigram five years prior.
- Electoral authorities deployed 200 paramilitary companies and invoked sealed strong rooms and continuous CCTV monitoring to reassure a public primed for dispute.
- With the Congress showing a faint pulse at two seats and the Left Front reduced to irrelevance, the day's count was narrowing into a two-party, two-leader reckoning whose outcome remained unresolved by midday.
Counting began at eight in the morning on May 4th, and within hours West Bengal's political future had begun to take shape. The BJP was leading in 105 of the state's 294 assembly seats; the Trinamool Congress, which had governed for fifteen years under Mamata Banerjee, trailed at 95. Either party needed 148 seats to form a government — a threshold that suddenly felt within reach for both.
The election carried unusual weight. It was the first held after 90 lakh names were purged from the voter rolls under the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision. The Trinamool alleged the deletions were targeted to suppress their base; the BJP called it necessary housekeeping. That unresolved dispute hung over the count like an open wound.
The personal stakes sharpened everything. Adhikari — once Banerjee's lieutenant, now the Leader of Opposition — had brought the fight to her home constituency of Bhabanipur. Five years earlier he had defeated her in Nandigram; she had returned to the assembly through a bypoll. Now he was leading in Bhabanipur again, and she was trailing in what observers called a close contest.
Early trends showed the BJP making significant rural gains — leading in 58 of 117 rural seats counted, up 19 from 2021, while Trinamool fell to 57, down 21. In urban seats, the BJP led in 16 to Trinamool's 12. The arithmetic pointed to a meaningful shift in the state's political geography.
Tension spilled into the counting centers. At Sakhawat Memorial School in Bhabanipur, agents from both parties clashed before counting had properly begun, trading accusations over identification badges and access to booths. Banerjee had warned her workers the night before to guard the strong rooms and report any irregularities; she cited power outages at centers in Serampore, Krishnanagar, and Ausgram. The Chief Electoral Officer acknowledged brief blackouts but attributed them to load-shedding, not interference, and pointed to two hundred paramilitary companies and uninterrupted CCTV surveillance as guarantors of integrity.
By midday the BJP's lead had widened, but the final result remained unwritten. The Congress, which had won nothing in 2021, was ahead in two seats. The Left Front, which had governed Bengal for 34 years before Banerjee's rise, was a marginal presence. What remained was a contest between two parties, two visions, and two leaders whose rivalry had become the state's defining political story — and whose outcome would determine whether the order of the past fifteen years would hold or finally give way.
The counting began at eight in the morning on May 4th, and within hours the shape of West Bengal's political future had started to emerge from the vote tallies. The BJP, a party that had never held power in the state, was leading in 105 of the 294 assembly seats. The Trinamool Congress, which had governed for the past fifteen years under Mamata Banerjee, was ahead in 95 seats. To form a government, either party needed 148 seats—a threshold that suddenly felt within reach for both. The race was tighter than most had expected.
This election carried weight beyond the usual stakes of a state assembly contest. It was the first to be held after a record purge of the voter rolls: 90 lakh names had been deleted under what the Election Commission called the Special Intensive Revision, a process meant to remove duplicate registrations and voters who had moved or died. The Trinamool had cried foul, alleging that the deletions were targeted and meant to suppress their base. The BJP defended the exercise as necessary housekeeping. The disagreement had shadowed the entire campaign, and now, as votes were being counted, it hung over the proceedings like an unresolved argument.
The personal dimension of the contest gave it additional intensity. Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister seeking a fourth consecutive term, was defending her seat in Bhabanipur against Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition and a man who had once been her lieutenant before defecting to the BJP. Five years earlier, Adhikari had defeated Banerjee in Nandigram; she had then won a bypoll from Bhabanipur to return to the assembly. Now Adhikari had brought the fight directly to her doorstep. As the morning wore on, he was leading in Bhabanipur, and Banerjee was trailing in what observers described as a close contest.
The early trends showed the BJP making substantial gains, particularly in rural areas. In the 117 rural seats where counting had progressed far enough to show a trend, the BJP was ahead in 58, up 19 from the 2021 election. The Trinamool, by contrast, was ahead in 57 of those same seats, down 21 from five years prior. In urban constituencies, the BJP was leading in 16 seats, up seven from last time, while the Trinamool held 12, down seven. The arithmetic suggested a significant shift in the state's political geography.
The counting centers themselves became flashpoints for tension. At the Sakhawat Memorial School in Bhabanipur, counting agents from the two parties clashed before the process even began in earnest. Trinamool workers alleged that BJP agents were being allowed to bring files and pens into the counting booths while their own representatives faced restrictions. A BJP agent countered that Trinamool workers were not wearing proper identification and were creating unnecessary disruption. Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee had issued urgent instructions to her party workers the night before: stay awake, watch the strong rooms where ballots were stored, file complaints if anything seemed amiss. She had received reports of deliberate power outages at counting centers in Serampore, Krishnanagar, and Ausgram—incidents she attributed to the BJP.
The Chief Electoral Officer, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, moved to reassure the public. Two hundred companies of paramilitary forces had been deployed to the counting centers. There were three layers of security. The strong rooms had been sealed and would be opened only in the presence of candidates' representatives. Everything would proceed according to protocol. When asked about the power outages Banerjee had mentioned, Agarwal acknowledged that brief blackouts had occurred but attributed them to load-shedding and the time it took for backup power to kick in. The CCTV cameras covering the strong rooms were monitored continuously, he said, and there was no possibility of tampering.
The Trinamool's national spokesperson, Kalyan Banerjee, struck a different note. He argued that the Supreme Court had intervened in the voter deletion process in a way that was unprecedented in Indian electoral history, stripping the Election Commission of authority it normally wielded. The people of Bengal, he said, had been harassed throughout the SIR process. The BJP would have to answer for that harassment at the ballot box. For the BJP, the narrative was one of growth and transformation. A senior journalist covering the election observed that the party's gains in West Bengal were historically significant—the BJP had long been seen as a Hindi heartland party, and its expansion into Bengal represented a fundamental shift in Indian politics.
As the morning progressed and more votes were counted, the picture remained fluid. The Congress, which had won zero seats in 2021, was leading in two constituencies. Humayun Kabir, the suspended Trinamool MLA who had formed his own party and gained attention for his initiative to build a mosque named after the Babri, was trailing in Naoda. The Left Front, which had governed Bengal for 34 years before Banerjee's rise, remained a marginal force. The real battle was between two parties, two visions, and two leaders whose personal rivalry had become inseparable from the state's political identity. By midday, the BJP's lead had widened, but the outcome remained uncertain. The counting would continue through the day, and the final result would determine not just who governed West Bengal, but whether the political order that had held for the past fifteen years would endure.
Citas Notables
The people of Bengal were harassed during the entire SIR period. For this harassment, the BJP must pay by this election.— Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee
Democracy wins every time in the country, ultimately. Similar conditions existed in Uttar Pradesh. Jungle Raj ended there long ago after the BJP came to power.— BJP Leader Suvendu Adhikari
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does this election matter beyond West Bengal itself?
Because it's the first time the BJP has a realistic chance of winning a state it's never governed. If they take Bengal, it changes the map of Indian politics—it means their reach extends beyond their traditional strongholds.
What's the significance of those 90 lakh deleted voters?
It's the core grievance. The Trinamool says those deletions were targeted at their voters. The BJP says they were necessary cleanup. But the fact that it happened right before an election where the results are this close means everyone's asking: did it change the outcome?
Mamata Banerjee is trailing in her own seat. How does that happen to someone with her political stature?
Suvendu Adhikari was her protégé. He knows her machine, her methods, her base. When he switched sides, he brought that knowledge with him. Now he's using it against her in the one seat that matters most to her personally.
The early leads show the BJP ahead, but it's not a landslide. What does that tell us?
That this isn't a wave election. It's a grinding shift. The BJP is picking up seats in rural areas where they had almost no presence before. But the Trinamool still has a foothold. This could go either way depending on how the counting unfolds.
Why are people so worried about the counting centers themselves?
Because in a close race, the process becomes the story. If either side believes the count is being manipulated, it delegitimizes the result. That's why both parties are watching so intensely—they don't trust each other.
What happens if the BJP wins?
It would be historic. But it would also mean Mamata Banerjee, who's been the dominant political figure in Bengal for 15 years, loses power. That's not just a change of government—it's a generational shift.