BJP Wins West Bengal For First Time, Modi’s Party Takes Control of Opposition Stronghold

India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the state of West Bengal for the first time in its 46-year history, a result that Al Jazeera described as “arguably the Hindu nationalist party’s most consequential victory since 2014.”

“For the first time in its 46-year history, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won the state of West Bengal, arguably the Hindu nationalist party’s most consequential victory since 2014, the year Modi first came to power”

Al Jazeera

The legislative assembly elections were held on several dates in April in West Bengal, along with Tamil Nadu, Assam and Kerala, and in the federally-governed territory of Puducherry, according to Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera said the BJP retained Assam for a third consecutive term, while the coalition it is a part of also returned to power in Puducherry.

In West Bengal, Al Jazeera reported that the BJP won a “stunning 207 seats,” reducing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to “80 legislators in the 294-member assembly.”

NPR reported that the Election Commission of India released partial results showing the BJP won “at least 124 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly,” and was leading in “83 others,” with final results expected “Monday evening.”

The Guardian said the BJP looked set to win “more than 205 out of 294 seats,” describing it as a “landmark majority,” while the BBC framed it as Modi’s BJP “conquers one of India’s toughest political frontiers.”

In New Delhi, NPR quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi telling supporters at the BJP headquarters, “A new chapter has been added to Bengal's destiny,” as the party took control of the opposition stronghold.

The election outcome in West Bengal landed after a long political arc that Al Jazeera traced to the state’s earlier dominance by the Communist government and then the Trinamool Congress.

Al Jazeera said West Bengal elected a communist government in 1977 that remained in power for “a record 34 consecutive years,” before the Trinamool Congress brought it down in 2011.

BBC

The BBC similarly described Bengal as the “great exception” to Modi’s political advance, noting that the state had seen only “one change of government in nearly half a century” before the shift now implied by the BJP win.

The Guardian linked the result to a “highly controversial exercise” by the BJP government to revise West Bengal’s electoral roll under the guise of “purging” illegal voters, saying “more than 2.7 million voters were removed from the vote register.”

Scroll.in provided a more detailed account of the special intensive revision (SIR), saying the Election Commission rolled out plans to conduct the exercise in several parts of India including West Bengal and that it led to the deletion of “about 91 lakh names from the Bengal voter rolls, shrinking them by 12%.”

Scroll.in also tied the BJP’s victory to a vote-share swing, saying the BJP finished with a “46% vote share,” an “eight percentage point swing” from the Trinamool’s “about 40%.”

Al Jazeera added that the BJP’s West Bengal win came “riding on a combination of anti-incumbency sentiment against Banerjee and its own tried-and-tested anti-Muslim rhetoric,” and it framed the result as the biggest takeaway from Monday’s verdict.

In the same election cycle, NPR said the BJP’s control of West Bengal was expected to boost Modi’s standing and strengthen his position midway through his third term, and it noted Modi is expected to run for a “record fourth term in 2029.”

Reactions to the West Bengal result split along party lines, with BJP leaders celebrating and TMC leaders alleging irregularities.

“12 years ago, Amit Shah made a promise to Mamata The BJP has comprehensively defeated the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, ending its 15-year rule”

India Today

NPR reported that Modi addressed supporters at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi and said, “A new chapter has been added to Bengal's destiny,” while the Guardian quoted Modi saying in a statement that the West Bengal assembly elections “will be remembered forever. People’s power has prevailed and BJP’s politics of good governance has triumphed.”

The Telegraph India quoted Mamata Banerjee calling the outcome “immoral” and alleging that the mandate in “more than 100 seats” was “looted,” adding that she said, “We will bounce back.”

The Telegraph India also reported Banerjee’s claim that “The EC's activities with the help of central forces in connivance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah were illegal” and that she lodged a complaint with Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal “but to no avail.”

In the same report, the Telegraph India said CPM state secretary Mohammed Salim argued that people gave their mandate against the TMC’s “corruption, tyrannical rule and misgovernance,” while Rahul Gandhi was quoted saying, “We agree with Mamata Banerjee; more than 100 seats were stolen in West Bengal.”

NDTV quoted Union Home Minister Amit Shah praising the voters of Bhabanipur, saying, “Hats off to the people of Bhabanipur. Their mandate has made it clear what fate awaits an anarchic ruler.”

For the BJP’s side of the narrative, Al Jazeera said Modi posted on X, “The lotus has bloomed in West Bengal!” and it described the BJP’s win as a “stunning 207 seats” outcome that reduced the TMC to “80 legislators.”

Different outlets emphasized different mechanisms behind the BJP’s Bengal breakthrough, even when they described the same broad result.

The Guardian foregrounded the electoral-roll revision, saying the BJP’s win followed “a highly controversial exercise” to revise West Bengal’s electoral roll and that “more than 2.7 million voters were removed from the vote register,” while it also reported that critics and TMC leaders alleged the SIR exercise was an attempt to skew the election.

NPR

Scroll.in, by contrast, focused on the internal logic of the SIR and the vote-share math, quoting Rahul Sinha complaining that Mamata Banerjee was trying to “divide the Hindu vote,” and arguing that the BJP could defeat the Trinamool only if “more than 5% of the state’s voters switch their loyalty from Banerjee to itself.”

Scroll.in also described the SIR as “contentious revision processled to the deletion of about 91 lakh names from the Bengal voter rolls, shrinking them by 12%,” and it said the BJP’s “46% vote share” represented an “eight percentage point swing” from the Trinamool’s “about 40%.”

BBC framed the election as a culmination of a decade-long political project and quoted Rahul Verma saying the BJP “really needed only another 5-6% to cross the line,” while it also described the BJP’s support as extending beyond “the limits of its relatively thin organisational structure.”

Al Jazeera, meanwhile, emphasized ideology and coalition-building, saying the BJP’s win was driven by “anti-incumbency sentiment against Banerjee” and “tried-and-tested anti-Muslim rhetoric,” and it reported the BJP’s seat total as “207 seats” with the TMC reduced to “80 legislators.”

In the Bhabanipur constituency, the Telegraph India and NDTV both highlighted Suvendu Adhikari’s win, with NDTV quoting Amit Shah’s praise and the Telegraph India reporting Banerjee’s loss by “nearly 15,105 votes” and quoting the EC website’s trailing margin of “10,994.”

The Siasat Daily added a different dimension by describing post-election polarization and hate speech, including a video where a man said, “Ki do saal tak tab tak kaato jabtak bacche, budhe, maulana, jihadi, sab khatam nai hojate,” and it also reported attempts to rename “Masjid Para Road” as “Netaji Palli Road.”

The sources portray immediate political consequences across West Bengal and beyond, with the BJP preparing to govern and opposition figures planning responses.

“Modi's party takes control of India's West Bengal in key state election NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist party on Monday wrested control of the state of West Bengal, an opposition stronghold, in a key election”

NPR

NPR said the BJP’s win in West Bengal was expected to boost Modi’s standing and strengthen his position midway through his third term, and it noted Modi is expected to run for a “record fourth term in 2029.”

Scroll.in

NDTV reported that the BJP “will form its first ever government in West Bengal,” and it said the party won “206 seats” while the TMC was reduced to “81 seats,” with counting still underway in one seat.

Al Jazeera described the West Bengal outcome as the biggest takeaway from Monday’s verdict and framed it as a question of whether Bengal’s “communal exceptionalism” and “relative harmony” would remain under a BJP government.

In the Bhabanipur constituency, NDTV said Banerjee would hold a press conference on Tuesday at “4:00 pm,” after losing her bastion to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari by “15,505 votes.”

The Telegraph India reported that Banerjee walked out of the counting centre at her Bhabanipur Assembly constituency and said, “We will bounce back,” while also alleging that the “EC's activities” were illegal.

Beyond West Bengal, Al Jazeera said Tamil Nadu saw the rise of actor Joseph Vijay, who “broke the stranglehold of two long-dominant state parties,” and it said Kerala saw a communist government lose to an Indian National Congress-led alliance, with “the first time in 50 years that the left is not in control of any Indian state.”

BBC added that in Tamil Nadu, “MK Stalin's DMK government was swept aside by actor-turned-politician Vijay,” and it said Kerala’s Congress-led UDF defeated the Left Democratic Front after two consecutive terms.

The Guardian also linked the broader election cycle to the BJP’s momentum, noting that on Monday the BJP was “also re-elected in the eastern state of Assam” and that the result followed the SIR exercise in West Bengal.