West Bengal is gearing up for parliamentary elections. Mamata Banerjee will face her toughest challenge, given the anti-incumbency factor of three terms.
The BJP consolidated its position as the primary opposition in 2021, winning 77 seats to Trinamool’s 215 seats.
This time, unusually, but unsurprisingly, the electoral commission became the key figure in the political narrative. The Special Intensive Review (SIR) ended up wiping out more than 60 million voters. And in many constituencies, the number of excluded voters is greater than the margin of victory in the previous election.
Another issue is the mass transfers in the state bureaucracy, which are unprecedented and have been challenged in the TMC court. Mamata used the development to frame the polls as a fight between a beleaguered Bengal and Bengali “asmita” on one side and the BJP-led Center on the other. The BJP is playing the anti-migrant card to polarize the electorate and has also tried to target the TMC on corruption and misgovernance.
Whose narrative will prevail? What happens to the millions of deleted voters? How will SIR affect the outcome?
Guest: Shiv Sahay Singh, Chief Hindu Bureau, Calcutta
Guest: G Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu
Edited and produced by Shiksha Jural
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Published – 03 Apr 2026 18:28 IST
