Kolkata/Chennai: BJP was forging a possible victory path in West Bengal with leads in 109 seats against the ruling TMC’s 63 and surging ahead in Assam while actor-politician Vijay’s TVK was set for a stunning debut in Tamil Nadu, ahead in 103 seats, leaving the ruling DMK in number three position, according to trends on the Election Commission website.
As votes were counted for Assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, the east seemed set to be coloured a vivid saffron. In Kerala, the fading bastion of the Left, the Congress was ahead in 61 seats, the CPM in 29 and the CPI in nine.
The cynosure of Election 2026 has been West Bengal, the state ruled by the Mamata Banerjee-led party that has long eluded the BJP and is now within its grasp. It was a volatile election campaign with issues of SIR, electoral rigging and polarisation dominating the discourse.
More than 2.5 lakh personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), along with state police, have been deployed, with the TMC and BJP engaging in a showdown outside several strongrooms, where EVMs were stored, in the run-up to the counting.
If the BJP was seeking a historic breakthrough, the TMC was fighting hard to retain power for a fourth consecutive term.
“The BJP will form the government,” said a confident Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari who is is seeking a re-election from Nandigram and taking on Banerjee in Bhabanipur. Asked about his own prospects, Adhikari said, “Jeetenge. Achhe se jeetenge (I will win handsomely).”
The Trinamool Congress leadership was more circumspect, preferring to wait and watch.
The writing may be on the wall, said pollsters. If the trends hold out, it could be all but over for the tough-talking Mamata Banerjee and another victory for Brand Modi.
In Assam, where too the election was a hot-headed process, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma led the BJP to another straight victory with leads in 74 of the 126 seats, leaving the Congress far behind in 23.
If West Bengal is one headline of Election 2026, the other is superstar Vijay, who defied the odds and the taint of a stampede during his rally in September 2025 in which more than 40 people were killed. That was clearly in the past as his party was poised to become the single largest party in Tamil Nadu with leads in 103 of the state’s 234 seats.
The AIADMK was ahead in 67 seats and the ruling DMK in 38. The choice, it appeared, was clear. Vijay could well join the pantheon of MGR and Jayalalithaa as the stars who made it big in the political firmament.
Kerala offered some consolation for the Congress, long fighting diminishing electoral returns. In the southern state, the Congress-led UDF had taken a massive lead, indicating that it could return to claim power.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief Sunny Joseph said it indicates a pro-UDF trend in the state and expressed confidence that the UDF will reach the 100-seat mark in the 140-strong Assembly.
In Puducherry,the Congress and the BJP were tied at leads in two seats each and the All India NR Congress ahead in seven of the 30 seats for which trends were available.
PTI
