Kolkata

In a stunning setback for the ruling All India Trinamool Congress, as many as 22 of the 35 ministers who contested the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections have suffered defeat, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in her traditional stronghold of Bhabanipur.

The scale of the losses means nearly 63 per cent of the state cabinet members who entered the electoral fray failed to retain their seats, signalling a major political reversal for the party after over a decade and a half in power.

Among the most prominent casualties were senior ministers handling key portfolios such as education, finance, housing, power, industry, transport, social welfare and rural development, indicating what political observers described as a widespread erosion of support for the ruling establishment.

Banerjee lost the Bhabanipur seat to senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari by more than 15,000 votes, dealing a personal and political blow to the TMC supremo. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s sweeping performance also saw defeats for ministers including Aroop Biswas, Bratya Basu, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Shashi Panja, Sujit Bose, Udayan Guha and Siddiqullah Chowdhury, among others.

According to the latest figures released by the Election Commission of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party secured around 206–207 seats in the 294-member assembly, comfortably crossing the majority mark and paving the way for its first government in West Bengal, while the TMC was reduced to around 80–81 seats.

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The outcome marks the end of the TMC’s 15-year rule in the state and represents one of the most dramatic electoral shifts in West Bengal’s political history.