Bengal Election 2026: This time the political equations were seen changing completely in the West Bengal Assembly elections. Women and Muslim voters, i.e. the ‘two M factors’, which were considered the strength of Trinamool Congress (TMC) for a long time, were seen weakening this time, which had a direct impact on the election results.
BJP’s focus on women factor
BJP campaigned heavily making the failure of the Women’s Reservation Bill an issue. Not only this, the party also made many big announcements keeping women at the center. Its effect is clearly visible in the elections. Incidents like rape and murder in RG Kar Medical College also raised serious questions regarding safety among women, due to which TMC’s hold seemed to be weakening.
There was a situation of fragmentation in Muslim votes.
Now talking about the second ‘M’ i.e. Muslim factor, this time this community did not appear united like before. Muslim voters have been playing an important role in Mamata Banerjee’s politics, but this time this equation seemed to be breaking. There is also discussion within TMC that Mamata Banerjee could not effectively represent the community on issues like SIR, Waqf and exclusion of Muslim castes from the OBC list. For this reason, Muslim voters were not united with TMC like before.
Hindu voters are inclined towards BJP
On the other hand, Hindu voters appeared more mobilized in favor of BJP than before, the effect of which was clearly visible in the results. BJP won 8 seats in a Muslim dominated district like Murshidabad, which is considered a stronghold of TMC.
Equation changed in many districts
BJP won 6 seats in Malda. Apart from this, distribution of Muslim votes was also seen in districts like North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and West Bardhaman. Experts believe that these two big factors (women and Muslims) went against TMC.
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BJP’s victory on key seats
BJP candidate Subrata Maitra won from Muslim dominated Baharampur seat. Apart from this, BJP also won the seats of Khargram, Kandi, Nabagram, Jangipur, Murshidabad, Beldanga and Burwan. BJP’s Amlan Bhaduri won from Malda’s English Bazar seat with a massive victory of 93,784 votes, while Joyel Murmu emerged victorious from Habibpur seat.
Effect of central leadership’s activism
The role of central leadership was also important in BJP’s victory. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself campaigned in many areas of West Bengal. Whereas Union Home Minister Amit Shah remained in the state for about 10 days. Many leaders including election in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and Biplab Deb strengthened the party by camping continuously. BJP’s strategy was very active not only at the assembly level but also at the booth level, the benefit of which was clearly visible in the election results.

