New Delhi/Kolkata/Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s stellar showing in the West Bengal Assembly polls during a grand victory celebration at the party headquarters in the Capital on Monday, underlining that the people’s verdict marked their faith in democracy and the politics of performance.
As votes were counted, Election Commission trends showed a landslide for the BJP with 208 combined wins and leads out of 293 seats contested in the 294-strong Assembly – re-polling has been ordered in one constituency – as the incumbent TMC was left reeling at just 79.
The latest electoral cycle also saw a spectacular debut in Tamil Nadu by actor-politician Vijay’s TVK with 106 wins and leads out of 234 seats to emerge as the largest single party, a wipeout of the Left as it tasted defeat in its last bastion, and a solitary win in Kerala for the Congress, which has been battling diminishing electoral returns.
“Our mantra is ‘nagrik devobhava’ (citizen is god). We are dedicated to serving the people. That is why the people have shown their faith in the BJP. They know the BJP is synonymous with good governance, whether it is state government or civic elections as you saw in the party winning its highest ever vote share in the recent Gujarat local body polls,” Prime Minister Modi said.
Wearing a traditional Bengali dhoti-kurta, Modi expressed gratitude to party ‘karyakartas’ (workers) and the voters of West Bengal, Assam as well as Puducherry, assured the people of Tamil Nadu and Kerala that the BJP would strive to serve them equally, and took a dig at old foe Congress, saying he was sure that the people of Kerala would teach the party a lesson in the next elections.
As regional powerhouse TMC stared at a bleak future with its citadel breached, the PM paid glowing tributes to Sangh ideologue Shyama Prasad Mukherjee for fighting to keep West Bengal in India and said it was fitting that in the 150th year of Vande Bharat the state witnessed “poriborton” (political change), emphasising that the reign of fear was over.
“Those like Dr Mukherjee who believe in ‘rashtra sarvopari’ (nation above all) are always ready to sacrifice their lives for the country. His vision for Bengal has come true today on May 4, 2026 as the people of the state have given us the opportunity to serve.”
“For the first time in Bengal, the elections were conducted completely peacefully, with not a single person losing their life,” the PM said in reference to the role played by security forces in ensuring incident-free polls.
More than 2.5 lakh personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), along with state police, were deployed with the TMC and BJP engaging in a showdown outside several strongrooms where EVMs were stored in the run-up to the counting.
In Assam, where the election was a hot-headed affair too, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma led the BJP to another straight victory, bagging 82 of the 126 seats, leaving the Congress far behind at 19. Congress state unit president Gaurav Gogoi faced his first electoral defeat in Jorhat.
“Hat-Trick with a century!” a jubilant Sarma posted on X and thanked the people of Assam.
The cynosure of Elections 2026, however, was West Bengal, where the Trinamool Congress was eyeing a fourth straight term in its only bastion.
“The Lotus blooms in West Bengal! The 2026 West Bengal Assembly Elections will be remembered forever. People’s power has prevailed and BJP’s politics of good governance has triumphed,” Modi said on X before the victory speech at the party headquarters.
As counting progressed, power for the TMC seemed to be pulling away – further and further. The state’s political landscape was changing with the BJP, its campaign spearheaded by Amit Shah with Modi as its lodestar, pushing ahead in border, tribal and industrial regions, while the TMC held ground in parts of Kolkata and select rural strongholds.
The numbers, pollsters said, clearly indicated that it was all over for the tough-talking Mamata Banerjee and another victory for Brand Modi.
A defiant Banerjee disagreed even as latest trends showed her trailing behind the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in the Bhabanipur constituency.
“A false narrative is being spread,” she alleged in a video message.
The chief minister accused the Election Commission of “not declaring results or leads” in areas where the TMC was ahead.
“This is a game plan by the EC and the BJP as it (the poll panel) is not declaring results or leads in areas where we are leading,” she said.
Banerjee also alleged irregularities in the counting process at some locations.
“In several places, counting has been stopped after the first two to three rounds. In Kalyani, we have caught seven machines with severe anomalies,” she claimed.
“I appeal to everyone that neither TMC candidates nor counting agents should abandon the counting centres,” Banerjee said. Later, she alleged that “100 seats were looted by the BJP through cheating.”
It was a volatile election campaign with issues of the SIR, electoral rigging and polarisation dominating the discourse.
West Bengal was one headline of Elections 2026, the other was superstar Vijay, who defied the odds and the taint of a stampede during his rally in September 2025 in which 41 people were killed. That was clearly in the past as his party broke the bipolar cycle of Dravidian politics.
Congratulating Vijay, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, “The mandate reflects the rising voice of the youth, which cannot and will not be ignored.”
The ruling DMK that had started the morning at number three position was at 59 and the AIADMK at 47.
The choice, it appeared, was clear. Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar appeared set to join the pantheon of MGR and Jayalalithaa as the stars who made it big in the political firmament. The star of hits such as “Mersal” and “Leo” went into the campaign with a list of lofty poll promises, including 8 gm gold for marriage, worth about Rs 1.12 lakh. Vijay’s assurances in the party manifesto also included Rs 2,500 monthly assistance for women below 60 years of age and six free cooking gas cylinders a year per family.
With the Kerala win in its pocket, Congress general secretary and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra thanked the people of the state for their overwhelming support.
“To all my brothers and sisters in Keralam, thank you for your faith and for your overwhelming support. The trust you have placed in us will be the UDF’s guiding force as we work hard towards building a better future for each one of you,” she said.
In Puducherry, the All India NR Congress had won or was ahead in 12 of the 30 seats. The DMK stood at five and the BJP at four. The TVK made its presence felt with two.
