Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party swept to a “record” victory Monday in key elections in opposition-held West Bengal state, conquering a bastion long held by its adversary. Votes were still being counted under tight security in the state of more than 100 million people, one of five states and territories that held elections in April and May where results were also being announced on Monday.
But latest results by the Election Commission of India showed Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won 190 seats, far beyond the 148 needed for a majority in the legislative assembly, marking its first-ever electoral victory in West Bengal. The BJP returned to power in the northeastern state of Assam for a third time in a row, and in the small coastal territory of Puducherry, where it was a part of the ruling coalition.
The results should put Modi on a stronger footing while he battles a series of economic and foreign policy challenges, including high unemployment rates and a pending US trade deal, ahead of a general election in 2029.”The 2026 West Bengal Assembly Elections will be remembered forever,” Modi, 75, said on social media. “People’s power has prevailed and BJP’s politics of good governance has triumphed.””BJP’s record win in West Bengal would not be possible without the efforts and struggles of countless Karyakartas (workers) over generations,” Modi said.
Senior party leaders and thousands of supporters celebrated on the streets of the state capital Kolkata, joyously swaying to victory tunes. The BJP, the ruling party in the national parliament, waged an aggressive campaign to dislodge the powerful regional party of firebrand leader Mamata Banerjee, in power in West Bengal since 2011. This campaign was marked by protests over the purge of millions of names from voter rolls, billed as removing ineligible voters but which critics said was skewed against marginalised and minority communities.
A visibly agitated Banerjee, 71, alleged that the BJP was in cahoots with the election commission.”BJP looted more than 100 seats. The Election Commission is the BJP’s commission,” she told reporters in Kolkata, promising to “bounce back”. Banerjee also lost her own seat of Bhabanipur to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari by more than 15,000 votes.- ‘New face’ -Political analyst Sushila Ramaswamy said BJP’s victory in West Bengal would consolidate the party’s hold in eastern India. “It’s a tremendous victory,” she told AFP.”It also shows the electoral machinery of the BJP, how effective and how much detailing goes into their election campaign.
And it establishes the BJP as the dominant party in the country.”In another major electoral shock, veteran politician MK Stalin, chief minister of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, lost his seat to an unheralded rival. Stalin’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) came a distant second behind a debutant party floated by the actor-turned politician C. Joseph Vijay. Vijay, 51, one of India’s most bankable actors, launched his TVK party in 2024 on the plank of youth employment and good governance in Tamil Nadu, a key industrial hub with more than 80 million people.
Results showed that Stalin, 73, had lost in his Kolathur stronghold to TVK’s V. S. Babu. “This result (in Tamil Nadu) shows that the youth want a new face. It is not just anti-incumbency,” political scientist Ramu Manivanan told AFP.”Vijay as an actor has a large female fan base as a cinema star. All that has influenced the outcome,” Manivanan said. In neighbouring Kerala, an alliance led by the Congress party defeated the Left Democratic Front after two consecutive terms, ending the last remaining Communist-led state government in India.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi thanked the people of Kerala for a “truly decisive mandate”. He also heaped praise on party workers for ensuring a “hard-fought, well-run campaign”.
Mon, 04 May 2026 16:52:19 GMT