Guv dissolves West Bengal Assembly

West Bengal Governor RN Ravi on Thursday dissolved the State Cabinet. Consequently, Mamata Banerjee, who refused to resign after the poll results were announced, ceased to be the chief minister. She had claimed that the BJP looted votes and “immorally” won the State Assembly elections.

According to an official notification, the Governor dissolved the West Bengal State Legislative Assembly with effect from May 7 after completion of its term.

The current Assembly was constituted in May 2021 after the Trinamool Congress, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, returned to power for the third consecutive term in the State.

The dissolution marks the formal completion of the tenure of the outgoing Assembly, following the recently concluded two-phase elections. The notification was issued by the Department of Parliamentary Affairs.

Under Article 172 of the Constitution, the Assembly dissolves after its five-year term is over, and the outgoing Council of Ministers can continue in a caretaker capacity till the new Government takes the oath of office.

Mamata Banerjee’s declaration on Tuesday evening — a day after her party’s crushing defeat in the State Assembly elections — had sparked a massive row, with leaders of the BJP calling for her outright dismissal.

She contended that she had not lost the election and the mandate the BJP got was the result of “loot”. “I have not lost, so I will not go to Raj Bhavan. I will not tender resignation,” she had told reporters at a press conference.

With the dissolution of the current Assembly, decks are now clear for the formation of the first BJP Government in the eastern State. It bagged 207 seats out of the 294-seat Assembly, thereby ending the 15-year rule of the TMC.

The new dispensation is likely to take oath on Saturday, May 9, observed across Bengal as Rabindra Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and several union ministers, besides chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, are expected to attend the ceremony at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata.

Over the last decade, the BJP has steadily attempted to reinterpret Bengal’s icons — from Tagore and Swami Vivekananda to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Syama Prasad Mookerjee — as part of a broader ideological effort to expand its emotional footprint beyond traditional electoral polarisation.