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will have to wait until May 4 for the counting, when it will be revealed whether TMC’s symbol Jora Ghas Phul (two flowers with grass) or BJP’s emblem the Lotus blossoms.

The contest is also a high-stakes prestige fight between Mamata and Suvendu, once her closest aide in TMC.

Suvendu defeated her in Nandigram in 2021 by about 1,900 votes.

Following the ego-boost from taking Nandigram, this time, Suvendu made politics personal. The second seat he is contesting the elections from is Mamata’s home turf Bhabanipur in South Kolkata. There Suvendu is challenging his former mentor, Mamata herself.

The elections have unfolded amid a row between parties over a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter roll.

Nearly nine million names, about 12 percent of the electorate, were removed in the SIR, reducing the tally from 7.66 crore in October 2025 to 6.75 crore. West Bengal had 7.34 crore voters in 2021.

TMC has opposed the move, accusing the BJP of polarisation, while the BJP insists it was aimed at eliminating illegal infiltrators.

The deletions could shrink TMC’s vote bank, as seen in Bhabanipur, where 51,000 voters, 21 percent of the electorate, were removed. Mamata had won her by-poll there by 58,800 votes, roughly the same number now deleted.

Besides Mamata, the fate of Kolkata Mayor and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim, Sports Minister Aroop Biswas, Agriculture Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, Education Minister Bratya Basu, Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, and Industries Minister Shashi Panja will be decided today. BJP leaders Tapas Roy, Swapan Dasgupta, Arjun Singh, Subrata Thakur, and Sajal Ghosh are also in the fray.

Though the election is a high-stakes battle between TMC and BJP, the Indian National Congress, once in power for 25 years, and the CPI (M), which ruled for 34 years, remain on the sidelines.

Their relevance is only being discussed in the event neither TMC nor BJP crosses the majority mark of 148 seats, when their support could become crucial.