New Delhi, May 6, 2026 — The Bharatiya Janata Party scored a historic victory in the West Bengal assembly elections on Monday, winning 208 of the state’s 294 seats and displacing the ruling Trinamool Congress, which fell to 79 seats from 215 in 2021. The result hands the BJP the right to form a state government for the first time and underlines a major shift in voter behaviour, especially among women.
State election data showed unusually high participation by women, with turnout near 93 percent — about two percentage points higher than men — and analysts say the BJP made unexpected gains in the women’s vote. Women make up nearly half of Bengal’s electorate and have long been seen as a core constituency for Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool, which relied in earlier years on welfare programmes targeted at women.
Trinamool’s appeal rested on a string of women-focused schemes such as Kanyashree, Rupashree and Lakshmir Bhandar, which the party credited with empowering women socially and financially. Polling after the 2021 polls suggested the TMC captured roughly half of women’s votes then, with the BJP at about 35 percent. After 2021, the Trinamool expanded Lakshmir Bhandar, initially offering Rs 1,000 monthly to women in the general category and Rs 1,200 to SC/ST women, later raising payments ahead of the 2026 polls to Rs 1,500 and Rs 1,700 respectively.
The BJP directly challenged those payouts with its proposed “Annapurna Bhandar,” promising Rs 3,000 a month to every woman if elected. The party also campaigned on a package of women-centric safety and welfare measures: free travel for women on state buses, a 33 percent reservation in government jobs including the police, women-only patrol squads, self-defence training units, at least one women’s police station in each block and women’s help desks at police stations. Other pledges included cash and nutrition support for pregnant women, scholarships for girls entering college, free HPV vaccination for those under 40, breast cancer screening for economically weaker women over 40, working women’s hostels in every district and higher honoraria for frontline workers.
The BJP also highlighted law-and-order controversies involving the Trinamool, notably unrest in Sandeshkhali in 2024 and the rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, incidents that drew mass protests by women. As part of its campaign, the BJP fielded high-profile local figures affected by those cases: Ratna Debnath, the mother of the RG Kar victim, won Panihati, defeating TMC candidate Tirthankar Ghosh, while Sandeshkhali protest figure Rekha Patra won Basirhat. Voter anger over alleged corruption, “cut money,” syndicate raj and administrative failures is also credited with driving support to the BJP.
Original Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/bengal-election-results-2026-why-female-voters-sided-with-bjp-and-not-bengals-daughter-mamata-banerjee-11455043#publisher=newsstand
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Publish Date: 2026-05-06 07:55:00
