The Trinamool Congress party’s bastion fell under the twin attacks of fierce anti-incumbency forces and the SIR process that slashed nearly 12% of the electoral roll, handing a historic victory to the BJP in a state often seen as the last stand for the party that has been in power at the Center since 2014.The BJP won 206 seats and led by 1 seat with 45.8% of the votes. The TMC’s vote share slipped to 40.8% from 48% in 2021, taking its 215 seats to 81 in the outgoing assembly (which it won and led before midnight), signaling a sharp shift from a party that espoused Bengali nativism over nationalist politics.With the BJP sweeping large swathes of the state from north to south, only a few TMC strongholds such as South 24 Parganas, East Burdwan and Howrah can stem the vote drain. The saffron party was almost completely dominant in the north, while the TMC was completely wiped out in Jhargram, Purulia and East Midnapur in the south-west.The coup de grace was the surge of saffron voters among urban and suburban voters in Kolkata and its fringes – Mamata’s southern bastion – where she occupied 123 of the 142 seats. The number shrunk to 52 as the TMC lost 10 seats in a swath of Kolkata (including Mamata’s own Babanipur), North 24 Parganas (including Panihati, where the mother of the raped and murdered RG Kar junior doctor was a BJP candidate) and Howrah.
