The Assembly seats in Kolkata and its twin city, Howrah, swung sharply towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) this time after overwhelmingly backing the TMC in the last three assembly elections, analysis
of official data by News18 shows. There are 11 assembly seats in Kolkata district while Howrah has 16 seats. Together, Kolkata and Howrah had overwhelmingly backed the TMC for three straight elections—giving the party 26 of 27 seats in both 2011 and 2016, and all 27 in 2021. In Kolkata, all the 11 seats went with TMC non-stop for the last three elections – in 2011, 2016, and 2021. The analysis begins from 2011 because it was the first assembly election after delimitation redrew constituency boundaries, and also marked TMC’s first victory in the state. It was in 2011 that All India Trinamool Congress (AITC/TMC) swept the West Bengal Assembly polls with 184 seats. Mamata Banerjee became the chief minister of the state for the first time. That year, the entire Kolkata district voted for the TMC, including Bhabanipur from where Banerjee won the by-polls to enter the assembly. The other seats were: Kolkata Port, Rashbehari, Ballygunge, Chowrangee, Entally, Beleghata, Jorasanko, Shyampukur, Maniktala, and Kashipur-Belgachhia.
All these seats voted for the TMC in a similar pattern in the next two assembly polls – in 2016 and 2021. But when the results were announced on Monday for the 2026 elections, the TMC had not just lost its hold over the state but the Kolkata district too had a changed mood. The BJP won more than half of the seats here, six, including Banerjee’s comfort ground, Bhabanipur. The biggest symbolic blow was Bhabanipur, the seat Banerjee has represented thrice since 2011.
The other five seats that voted for the BJP were Rashbehari, Jorasanko, Shyampukur, Maniktala, and Kashipur-Belgachhia. The closest fight was in Kashipur-Belgachhia, where the victory margin was only 1,651 votes. The victory margin in the remaining seats ranged between about 5,800 votes and 20,000 votes.
The highest victory margin for the BJP among the six seats was in Rashbehari (20,865 votes), followed by Maniktala (15,644 votes). The BJP won Bhabanipur with a margin of 15,105 votes while it secured Shyampukur by a margin of 14,633 votes. In Jorasanko, the margin was 5,797 votes.
But when it comes to seats bagged by the TMC, the victory margin was higher, showing a comfortable hold of the party. The party won Ballygunge with a margin of 61,476 votes, followed by Kolkata Port (56,080 votes). In Entally, TMC’s victory margin was 34,006 votes while in Beleghata it was 28,576 votes. The lowest voter margin for TMC in Kolkata district was in Chowrangee (22,002 votes).
While BJP won more seats in Kolkata, its victories were narrower than TMC’s wins, suggesting the city remains sharply polarised rather than decisively realigned.
HOWRAH
Howrah, when compared to Kolkata, was never with the TMC a 100 per cent. Even when the party enjoyed a comfortable majority – 184 in 2011 and 211 in 2016 – Amta voted for the Congress. While the rest of the seats voted for the TMC. But when it comes to the 2021 elections, where TMC won 215 seats, all the seats in Howrah went for the TMC.
This time, in seven of the 16 seats, the BJP won in Howrah. However, in three of these seats, the victory margin was below 7,000 votes: Uluberia Uttar (4,177); Amta (4,454); and Jagatballavpur (6,671). In three of the remaining seats, the margin was between 10,000 to 20,000 votes: Howrah Uttar (11,250); Bally (11,997); and Shibpur (16,058). Shyampur gave the highest victory margin to BJP at 22,260 votes.
For the nine seats that went in TMC’s count, the margin in eight of these was above 10,000 votes. The highest was in Domjur (42,177) and Panchla (38,320) while the lowest was in Howrah Dakshin (7,828).
Remaining seats had a margin between 10,000 and 20,000 votes: Uluberia Dakshin (17,187); Sankrail (16,740); Howrah Madhya (16,083); Udaynarayanpur (12,227); Uluberia Purba (11,838); and Bagnan (11,316).
Unlike Kolkata, where the BJP won a majority of seats, Howrah saw a slower shift away from the TMC, with several BJP victories coming in closely fought contests.
After sweeping all 27 seats across Kolkata and Howrah in 2021, the TMC is now down to 14. For a region that had remained a TMC stronghold for over a decade, that marks a significant political shift.
Statewide, the BJP has secured a clear majority with 207 seats, while the TMC has been reduced to 80.
