Kolkata (Gurpreet Singh)— In a seismic shift within the political landscape of West Bengal, outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee suffered a major upset on Monday, losing the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency to the Leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari. The final tally revealed a defeat by a margin of 15,114 votes, marking a significant personal and political blow to the Trinamool Congress leader. This result signifies the second time Adhikari has successfully challenged and defeated Banerjee in a direct contest, following his narrow but consequential victory over her in Nandigram during the 2021 elections.
Adhikari achieved a remarkable dual victory in this election cycle by securing both the Bhabanipur seat and his traditional stronghold of Nandigram. While his margin in Bhabanipur stood at 15,114 votes, he retained Nandigram with a lead of 9,000 votes. Reflecting on the results, Adhikari noted that the lower margin in his home territory was likely due to differing demographic compositions compared to the urban Bhabanipur region. With this win, he emphasized that he has fulfilled his long-standing promise to defeat Banerjee within her own traditional territory, further cementing his role as a formidable force in the province’s politics.
The defeat places Mamata Banerjee in a rare and difficult historical position, as she becomes only the second sitting Chief Minister in the history of West Bengal to lose an election while in office. The first to face such a setback was the late Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who was defeated by Trinamool’s Manish Gupta in Jadavpur in 2011. However, unlike her predecessor who withdrew from contesting following his loss, Banerjee has now navigated two successive defeats to her former confidant while holding the highest office in the state.
Following the formal announcement of the results, Adhikari spoke to supporters about the nature of his mandate, suggesting that his victory in Bhabanipur was achieved despite a lack of support from the Muslim community in that specific constituency. He attributed the tighter race in Nandigram to the significantly higher percentage of Muslim voters in that region. As the Bharatiya Janata Party celebrates its broader success across the province, this specific loss for the outgoing Chief Minister stands as a defining moment in a campaign that has reshaped the governing power of West Bengal for the coming term.
