who won the election in West Bengal? Narendra Modi’s BJP did, taking power in the state for the first time and winning 207 of the 293 seats declared so far. The TMC was reduced to 80 seats, with one seat still due for repolling.
Narendra Modi in West Bengal
The result gives the BJP control in a state of more than 100 million people that had resisted its advance for years. Mamata Banerjee had kept the party out in 2021, but this vote ends that run.
The scale of the result also changed the political map beyond the state. The BJP’s victory in Bengal is the party’s first there, and it comes after a seat count that left the TMC far behind even before the final repolling seat is decided.
Election Commission of India roll revision
The election followed a Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls by the Election Commission of India. Across West Bengal, more than nine million names were initially flagged, removed or subjected to scrutiny during that exercise, which the source says disproportionately targeted Muslims, migrant workers and poorer voters in districts where the BJP had historically struggled electorally.
For the first time since India adopted universal adult suffrage in its first general election of 1951-52, the burden of proving voting eligibility was effectively shifted to citizens themselves. The Special Intensive Revision was first rolled out in Bihar in June 2025 before being expanded to nine states and three Union Territories, including West Bengal.
West Bengal's voter base
West Bengal is a border state and Muslims make up roughly 27 percent of its population, with the state sharing a border of more than 2,200 kilometres with Bangladesh. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Delhi-based writer and journalist, is among the people identified in the story as the election’s wider context has reached beyond the seat tally.
The outcome leaves the BJP governing West Bengal for the first time and puts the voter-roll revision at the center of the post-election debate. The seat that still needs repolling remains the last formal step in the count, but the declared numbers have already handed the party power in the state.
