Bengal bypolls result to set the tone for 2026 Assembly elections

Kolkata: The results of by-polls in six Assembly seats of Bengal will be out on Saturday.

These by-elections may be considered the last major acid test for the political parties in the state before the 2026 state Assembly polls.

The results may also set the narratives of the political parties on how to proceed further with their campaign and which are the areas to work on.

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is confident of sweeping it all.

However, the BJP is pinning its hope on public anger over the RG Kar incident. Out of the six seats, Madarihat and Sitai are in north Bengal and the other four — Taldangra, Midnapore, Haroa and Naihati — are in southern Bengal.

In 2021, five of these were bagged by the TMC, while the BJP won one seat. All six were vacated after their holders won the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year.

Kunal Ghosh, TMC spokesperson said: “We have trust in the people. We are hopeful that people have voted for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s development initiatives in Bengal. We expect to win six out of six tomorrow.”

“It seems like just six Assembly seats but the timing of the by-elections is important to us. We are hopeful that we will win all six seats. If that happens, then it will be clear to us that the R G Kar protests had no impact on the minds of the voters,” Ghosh further pointed out.

BJP has not been able to win a single Assembly seat in Bengal in by-elections which have taken place after the 2021 Assembly elections.

The TMC maintained its dominance in the Lok Sabha elections this year while the BJP was ahead of the TMC in two of these Assembly segments: Madarihat and Medinipur, by 9,000 and 11,000 votes, respectively during Lok Sabha. On the other hand, the TMC was ahead in Sitai (by 29,000), Naihati (by 15,000), Taldangra (by 8,000), and Haroa (by 1,10,000).