Mamata sticks to her claim about winning 226 seats, despite edge for BJP in exit poll

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress will win at least 226 of the 294 seats in the West Bengal assembly, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday, a day after the polling got over, and most of the exit polls predicted an edge for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state elections.

Mamata also alleged that the BJP had made the pollsters predict the election results in favour of the saffron party to demoralise the TMC workers.

“We will cross 226 seats in 2026. We might even cross the 230-seat mark. I have complete faith in the people of West Bengal,” the chief minister said, thanking voters for turning out in large numbers “despite heat and intimidation”.

The TMC supremo had said ahead of the run-up to the assembly polls that her party would win at least 226 seats.

Though the exit polls aired after the final phase of polling on Wednesday predicted that the TMC might not reach the halfway mark of 148 seats and lose the race to the BJP, Mamata posted a video message on X on Thursday, reiterating her prediction about her party’s performance in the elections.

“What was shown on television channels was circulated from the BJP office at 1.08 p.m. (on Wednesday). Money was paid to ensure its telecast. I have specific information. They are saying forcefully that this must be done,” Mamata alleged, adding that the exit polls were part of a “larger conspiracy” to sway perception before the counting of votes and declaration of poll results.

Her video message was apparently a bid to boost the morale of the TMC workers, after the BJP’s top brass – from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to the saffron party’s state chief Samik Bhattacharya and its de facto chief ministerial candidate Suvendu Adhikari – claimed that the people of West Bengal had already delivered a mandate for a change.

Mamata’s heir apparent and the TMC general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, had been claiming that the BJP would win fewer than 50 seats.

He reiterated the claim on Wednesday, when 142 constituencies of the state went to the polls in the second and final phase of polling.

The first phase of polling on April 23 had covered 152 constituencies.

“Those who tried to subdue Bengal have been subdued by the ballot,” Mamata said on Thursday, expressing gratitude to the TMC workers who, she claimed, “fought relentlessly and endured attacks”.

The TMC on Wednesday accused the central paramilitary forces deployed in the state by the Election Commission of acting like a ‘private army’ of the BJP. Mamata, herself, alleged that the TMC polling agents had been intimidated by the personnel of the central paramilitary forces. She said that the atrocities by the central forces were unprecedented. She also said that what was happening was not at all free and fair polls. Abhishek, too, echoed her and cited the death of an elderly man, allegedly after being pushed by the paramilitary personnel, at a polling station in Howrah.

The TMC has been accusing the EC of working to ensure an edge for the BJP in the assembly elections. The party also alleged that the BJP-led government at the Centre deployed several agencies, like the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax department, the Central Bureau of Investigation and even the National Investigation Agency, to harass its leaders and workers across the state ahead of the polls.