A BJP tsunami has swept the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections. The party has bagged a two-thirds majority, winning 208 of 293 seats, routing Mamata Banerjee’s ruling Trinamool Congress by reducing it to 79 seats and ending her 15-year-old rule.Suvendhu Adhikari, outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s chief rival in Bhabanipur, defeated her.A repoll has been ordered in the Falta constituency of South 24 Parganas, after which the Assembly will regain its full strength of 294 seats.The BJP’s emphatic victory decimated the TMC’s hold on Bengal and helped it become part of Bengal’s history by being the first right wing party to win power in the state.Mamata’s dream of winning a fourth consecutive term got a rude shock as people from all walks of life rallied behind the BJP to usher in a change in West Bengal.The TMC not only lost seats in North Bengal, a BJP stronghold, but also in South Bengal and Rarh Bengal, considered to be Mamata’s bastion. The party failed to maintain its hold in the three Muslim-dominated districts of Uttor Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidabad as well.It lost several districts in South Bengal — Bardhaman, Medinipur, Hooghly and North 24 Parganas — and yielded ground to the BJP in South 24 Parganas and Howrah.Several TMC stalwarts were forced to bite the dust as infighting and bickering within the party helped the BJP consolidate its position in areas where it was not strong.The Muslim vote seemed to have been split and its support for Mamata weakened with the presence of other Muslim leaders and polarisation of Hindu votes in the BJP’s favour.The growing anti-incumbency factor, potato and jute crises, bad candidate selection, “arrogance” of TMC leaders and a shift in support of “Bhadralok” voters became key factors in her defeat.Barring North Bengal, there was no apparent strong saffron wave to help the BJP’s victory. The shift in support of voters can be attributed to people’s anger with Mamata and determination to teach her a lesson. The BJP read the room correctly and placed itself as the most viable option to the TMC.This year’s Assembly elections were a reminder of 2011, when Mamata’s TMC ended the CPM-led Left Front’s 34-year-old rule. This time, she was at the receiving end of the people’s anger to end her long rule. Since afternoon, Kolkata and Bengal streets were filled with BJP flags and party cadres were seen distributing sweets and smearing each other with saffron “gulal”.Mamata and TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee were greeted with shouts of “chor, chor” by BJP supporters when they visited centres to oversee the counting of votes, highlighting the pent-up frustration of people against the outgoing ruling party.The special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls failed to turn into a major plank, as Mamata had planned against the BJP. Instead, voters ended up praising the Election Commission for getting rid of a large number of false voters and holding the most peaceful elections in the state’s history.The record high turnout of voters and the presence of over two lakh-strong central police force and large deployment of the state police, ensured free and fair elections and encouraged people to come out and vote in large numbers.While the BJP will have to take steps to justify the faith reposed in it by the people for a meaningful change in Bengal, Mamata’s biggest challenge will be to keep her flock together and play the role of the main opposition party.Mamata’s track record of being a street fighter and bouncing back from adverse political situations will be put to serious test in the coming days.