Governance anger, Muslim split behind Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool's Bengal fall

"Chor, chor (thief)," BJP supporters chanted when Abhishek Banerjee, the chief minister's nephew and second-in-command, walked into the Sakhawat Memorial Girls School on Monday, where votes from Mamata Banerjee's own constituency were being counted.

By afternoon, Bengal had turned saffron — and Banerjee's 15-year government had been voted out in a political upheaval that carries the same shape as 2011, when her own street agitations ended 34 years of Left rule.

The BJP is set to govern Bengal for the first time since Independence. The TMC's vote share collapsed from 48% in 2021 to 40.8% — a loss of more than 7 percentage points. Banerjee lost her own constituency, Bhabanipur, by 15,105votes. The decisive shift came in the second phase, covering 142 seats: BJP, which won just 18 of those in 2021, won 66 on Monday.

Turnout rose sharply, with 63.4 million votes cast at 93%, against 59.9 million and 82.3% five years ago. To many observers, the BJP's Bengal win is the biggest political moment for the party since the 2014 Lok Sabha victory that installed Narendra Modi at the Centre.

"It is basically a lack of rule of law that the people of Bengal voted against," said Abhirup Sarkar, former economist with the Indian Statistical Institute. "Everyone suffered, especially industries and business, due to extortion and crime. This is the first time both Hindus and Muslims wanted to vote against the TMC."

The middle class and upper middle class, he added, shunned TMC specifically for governance failure — a pattern most visible in Kolkata, where BJP swept seats Banerjee's government had long held. "In districts where big leaders are based in Kolkata, TMC has not done well."

Before the first vote was cast, the election had been shaped by a special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll notified in October 2025.