Suvendu Adhikari, Mamata Banerjee In See-Saw Bhabanipur Battle

Suvendu Adhikari and Mamata Banerjee went back-and-forth Monday in the race for the Bhabanipur constituency as counting progresses for the 2026 Bengal Assembly election.

Adhikari dealt Banerjee a shock in the last election, beating her by fewer than 2,000 votes to claim the iconic Nandigram seat.

That forced the Trinamool boss to seek re-election from Bhabanipur to retain her Assembly seat.

In the build-up to this election, Adhikari went after Banerjee again, this time announcing his candidature from the family bastion of Nandigram and Bhabanipur too. He is currently leading from Nandigram.

Located within the wider Kolkata district, the Bhabanipur seat has been a Trinamool stronghold since 2011, when it was won by Subrata Bakshi. Before that it was the Kalighat seat for four elections and the Congress won three of those four polls.

Mamata Banerjee replaced Bakshi as the MLA later that year in a by-poll; curiously that too was facilitated to allow her to become an Assembly member and retain her chief ministership.

Meanwhile, in the overall picture, at 9.45 am the BJP raced the majority mark in the 234-seat Assembly, setting itself firmly on course to win the state for the first time ever and inflict a big defeat on the Trinamool.

The BJP was ahead in 158 seats to the Trinamool's 119. The Congress, routed in 2021, was ahead in four.

Bengal voted in a two-phase poll - on April 23 and 29 - after a shrill campaign that saw the Trinamool and the BJP trade fire at every turn, and exchange serious allegations of poll violence and misconduct, each of which the other side denied.

In the 2021 Bengal election the Trinamool delivered a statement win over the BJP, winning 215 of the state's 294 seats to make Mamata Banerjee the chief minister for a third straight time.