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deal another demoralising blow to the already weakened opposition, the BJP looked set to win more than 205 out of 294 seats in Bengal’s state assembly, a landmark majority.

Votes were still being counted under tight security in the state of more than 100 million people, one of five states and territories that held elections in April and May.

The results should put Modi on a stronger footing while he battles a series of economic and foreign policy challenges, including high unemployment rates and a pending US trade deal, ahead of a general election in 2029.

According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP has won 206 seats. The Trinamool Congress has secured 80 seats and is leading in one constituency. Congress has won two seats, while four others went to smaller parties.

The majority mark in the 294-member House is 148. However, with counting underway in 293 seats after polling in one constituency was countermanded, the effective majority has dropped to 147.

“The 2026 West Bengal Assembly Elections will be remembered forever,” Modi said on social media. “People’s power has prevailed, and BJP’s politics of good governance has triumphed.

“BJP’s record win in West Bengal would not be possible without the efforts and struggles of countless Karyakartas (workers) over generations.”

He added, “Today, with this victory in Bengal, the lotus has blossomed everywhere -- from Gangotri to Gangasagar.”

Senior party leaders and thousands of supporters celebrated on the streets of the state capital Kolkata, joyously swaying to victory tunes.

However, Mamata alleged massive irregularities in vote counting.

“More than 100 seats BJP looted. The Election Commission is the BJP’s commission,” Mamata, surrounded by security personnel, told reporters.

“Do you think this is a victory? It is an immoral victory, not a moral victory. Whatever the Election Commission has done, along with the Central Forces and the PM & Home Minister, is totally illegal. It is loot, loot, loot. We will bounce back,” she added.

Making matters worse, Mamata lost by 15,114 votes to Suvendu Adhikari, her former protégé and possibly the BJP’s CM candidate, in her Bhabhanipur stronghold, media reports said.

The BJP, the ruling party in the national parliament, waged an aggressive campaign to dislodge Mamata from power in West Bengal.

Though there was no major violence, scuffles broke out outside several counting centres in the state, and police used batons to control the crowd. Past elections have resulted in violence.

Mamata was scheduled to hold a press conference today, said TMC sources.

The result followed a highly controversial exercise by the BJP government to revise West Bengal’s electoral roll, under the guise of “purging” it of illegal voters. As a result of the project, called a special intensive revision (SIR), more than 2.7 million voters were removed from the vote register. Analysis showed that Muslims and other minorities, who traditionally do not support the BJP, were disproportionately targeted.

Many had not been allowed to challenge their expulsion in time for the polls. Critics and TMC leaders alleged the SIR exercise was an attempt by the BJP to skew the election in their favour, which was denied by the government.

For years, West Bengal was the great exception to Narendra Modi’s political advance.

BJP had swept through India’s Hindi-speaking heartland, expanded into the west and north-east, and overwhelmed once-formidable regional rivals. Yet Bengal -- argumentative and steeped in a self-image of cultural exceptionalism -- remained stubbornly resistant.

That made this state election unusually consequential. Yesterday’s BJP victory there would rank among the most significant breakthroughs of Modi’s 12-year reign. It is not merely the defeat of a three-term incumbent, but the completion of the party’s long march into eastern India.

Analysts see the outcome not as a sudden upheaval but as the culmination of a decade-long political project. Unlike the BJP’s rapid rise in Tripura or its earlier breakthrough in Assam, Bengal was never a lightning conquest.

“The BJP has been a major force in Bengal for three successive elections, consistently polling around 39% of the popular vote,” says Rahul Verma, who is a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research.

Once it established itself near the 39-40 percent mark, he argues, “the party really needed only another 5-6% to cross the line”. Voting trends show the BJP mopping up more than 44 percent of the vote this time.