BJP sweeps West Bengal, Vijay shocks TN

The 2026 Assembly election results come with elements of shock, awe, and surprise, with the BJP completely bulldozing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal, leaving Left and Congress to count on their debris in the State bordering Bangladesh.

Tamil Nadu catapulted a ‘Star’ to the power hot seat at Chennai by disrupting the decades-long dominance of DMK, as well as AIADMK who turns to rule over the Dravidians. While Assam and Puducherry expressed their wisdom to negate any anti-incumbency in their territories, Kerala voted for the anti-incumbency ballot by giving a face-saver to the grand old party Congress in the five State assembly elections results declared on Monday.

While West Bengal assembly results were more on expected lines, given the optimistic exit polls and BJP’s top leadership, who were counting on the historic poll percentages of 92 percent with issues around like SIR, infiltration, industrial rehabilitation, laced with ingredients of Bengal's famous snacks Jhalumri, the daylong debate shifted to the meteoric rise of merely two years old political party, TVK in Tamil Nadu.

Popular as Vijay, he defied the odds and the taint of a stampede during his rally in September 2025, in which 41 people were killed. Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar, who adopted Christianity, broke bipolar Dravidian politics and emerged as the single largest party in Tamil Nadu with 109 of the State’s 234 seats in its debut poll battle, also registering three-member win in neighbouring Puducherry.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi congratulated Vijay and is expected to support TVK with others in Government formation as the duo were ever engaged in talks due to a match of ideology and thought process. Sources close to Vijay said that the central Congress was ever in favour of an alliance with TVK, while local leadership in Tamil Nadu played the spoilsport, or the alliance of TVK-Congress would have been a major hit.

Vijay’s assurances in the party manifesto included Rs 2,500 monthly assistance for women below 60 years of age, 8 gm gold for marriage, and six free cooking gas cylinders a year per family.

As confident Union Home Minister Amit Shah camped in West Bengal for almost 15 days to nourish the confidence of party workers to dethrone the TMC from its citadel, incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was eyeing a fourth straight term for Trinamool.

“The Lotus blooms in West Bengal! The 2026 West Bengal Assembly Elections will be remembered forever. People’s power has prevailed, and the BJP’s politics of good governance has triumphed,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared his joy on social media.

A political fighter in Mamata Banerjee, however, disapproved of the message her citizens read out for her and her party through the ballot box and stated that a false narrative is being spread.

“This is a game plan by the EC and the BJP as it (poll panel) is not declaring results or leads in areas where we are leading,” she said and alleged irregularities in the counting process at some locations.

BJP added on Lotus in border, tribal and industrial regions, while the TMC held ground in parts of Kolkata and select rural strongholds. According to the Election Commission, the BJP won or was ahead in 195 of the 294 seats, well ahead of the magic number of 147, and power in the State was finally within its grasp. The Trinamool Congress tally was 90.

In Assam, where the election was a hot-headed affair too, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma led the BJP to another straight victory with leads in 81 of the 126 seats, leaving the Congress far behind at 19. Congress state unit president Gaurav Gogoi faced his first electoral defeat in Jorhat, which he won in the Lok Sabha 2024.

With a major win in its pocket in Kerala, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Wayanad MP thanked the people of the state for their overwhelming support. According to the Election Commission website, the UDF was leading or had won in over 95 constituencies in the 140-member House, which is enough to show the way out to the LDF. In Puducherry, the All India NR Congress had won or was ahead in 11 of the 30 seats. The DMK stood at five and the BJP at four. The TVK made its presence felt with three.

The defeats of the TMC, DMK and Left Front come less than a month after a united Opposition handed a rare Women’s Bill legislative setback to the ruling NDA in the Lok Sabha. The Lotus bloom in West Bengal, which sends as many as 42 MPs to Lok Sabha, holds the potential to expand its footprint further in the General Elections 2029, which the BJP is already working on after the majority debacle in 2024.

Simultaneously, regional parties, including TMC, which always questioned Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, have now themselves suffered electoral reverses, and a fresh alignment will be worked out ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and other assembly polls next year.