A woman in a male-dominated field, a warrior in saree and the biggest impenetrable obstacle to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee is a political leader who has braved anti-incumbency sentiments and aggressive campaigns by rivals for three consecutive terms. But luck and apparently the people’s mandate were not in his favor in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.
The TMC chief, fondly known as ‘Didi’ by her supporters, failed to capture her fort for the fourth time in a row, which is finally within reach of the BJP. Not only did Mamata Banerjee lose in West Bengal to the party she called an outsider, but she also lost her stronghold of Bhabanipur to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari – her former close aide, who had fought against her from this seat. Check the latest information about Assembly Elections 2026 here
Mamata Banerjee’s party is at the other end of the spectrum of power in West Bengal, where it is believed to have built a strong cadre that has helped keep the BJP in opposition for more than a decade.
A personality built on defiance
All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) founder Mamata Banerjee, who has built her political persona on defiance – be it the confrontation in Singur with the then ruling government in 2006-2008 or taking on the central government, became chief minister for the first time in 2011, ending 34 years of Left Front rule.
However, this election was no ordinary contest. Mamata’s top rival was the aggressive BJP which left no stone unturned in trying to win the state this time, not just as the opposition but as the ruling party.
The BJP ran a high-decibel campaign, deploying top leadership and significant resources. Yet, Banerjee turned the contest into a deeply personal battle, turning it into ‘Bengal vs.’Outsiders“ and recognition versus imposition. The appeal to keep the BJP out of the state also included a warning to people that if the party comes to power, it will make access to non-vegetarian food difficult – something that for many Bengalis is not just food, but an emotion.
Born in a Bengali Hindu Brahmin family in Kolkata in 1955, Mamata Banerjee comes from an ordinary family. His father, Promileshwar Banerjee, was a freedom fighter who died due to lack of medical treatment when he was 17. Mamata Banerjee’s mother Gayatri Devi was a housewife who died of age-related ailments in 2011 at the age of 81.
Based on publicly available information, Mamata Banerjee Is one of eight siblings. She has six brothers and according to various reports, she is either the only sister or one of very few sisters.
From Congress to NDA, was this done there?
Starting her political career in the 1970s, Mamata Banerjee’s journey includes a start with the Indian National Congress and even a stint with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) – now her biggest rival – with whom she served as a Union minister.
In the Congress, where she began her political career, she rose rapidly and established herself in a position of prominence in the political scene of Bengal during the 1980s.
She became one of the youngest parliamentarians in India after defeating veteran communist leader Somnath Chatterjee in Jadavpur constituency in 1984, the biggest milestone of her early career, which was characterized by grassroots activism, combative political style and strong opposition to the long-standing Left Front government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
In 1997, due to growing differences with Congress From leadership, Banerjee marked the biggest turning point in her career by forming her own party, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC or TMC). He established himself as the major challenger to the Left Front in the state.
To strengthen his hold at the national level, he aligned with the NDA and served as the Union Railway Minister under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee government from 1999–2001. During his tenure, he focused on expanding railway connectivity and introducing new trains, which particularly benefited Eastern India.
The years that followed gave Mamata Banerjee some of the biggest talking points of her career. Singur, a town in Hooghly district, became a major political controversy in 2006 over land acquisition for a Tata Motors factory.
Protests led by Mamata Banerjee eventually forced the project to be withdrawn, reshaping the political landscape of West Bengal.
Banerjee’s political strategy evolved over time and she changed alliances several times. This included a period of cooperation with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), during which he again served as Railway Minister from 2009 to 2011.
But, the primary focus of overthrowing the leftist government finally appeared in 2011, when they won a historic victory in state elections, removing the leftists from power after 24 uninterrupted years – one of the longest serving democratically elected communist governments in the world.
Since then, no opposition party or alliance has succeeded in removing Mamata Banerjee from power.
Mamata Banerjee has contested the state elections from Bhawanipur and Nandigram.
She won the 2011 by-election from Bhabanipur, which she had contested when she was an MP in the Lok Sabha, again in 2016 and again in 2021 (by-election).
She contested from Nandigram in 2021, but lost Suvendu Adhikari – His close aide who joined BJP from TMC before the elections – by a slim margin.
As an opposition leader and Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee has created the image of an elder sister – ‘Didi’ – for the people of West Bengal. His governing style is often described as direct and people-centred, although it has also attracted criticism over issues such as political violence and administrative centralisation.
Factors behind TMC’s defeat
Several factors have been attributed as the reasons for TMC’s crushing defeat in West Bengal, including a significant shift in BJP’s strategy after the 2021 defeat, which included efforts by the party to shed the “outsider” perception that had previously plagued it, by positioning itself as a more local force rooted in Bengal’s cultural identity.
Party leaders quoted in a First The HT report credited the party’s local campaign for its victory, which used slogans such as “Joy Maa Kali” and “Joy Maa Durga” instead of “Joy Shri Ram” and focused on booth-level management.
While the BJP was able to take advantage of growing dissatisfaction with governance and counter TMC’s traditional welfare advantage, the scale of Mamata Banerjee’s party’s defeat was due to accumulated governance fatigue as well as rapid political change.
Over 15 years, allegations of corruption, weak law and order and economic stagnation have steadily eroded the Trinamool Congress’s credibility, especially among the urban, middle class and business communities. Analysts pointed to extortion, crime and lack of industrial development as persistent concerns that ultimately translated into votes against the regime. This discontent is widespread across communities, with both Hindu and Muslim voters showing signs of slipping, reflected in TMC’s decline in vote share and BJP’s rise in urban centers like Kolkata. The increase in voting percentage due to clean voter lists and increased voter mobilization further increased this anti-incumbency wave.
At the same time, TMC’s long-standing reliance on minority integration led to counter-polarisation among Hindu voters, while a section of Muslim voters splintered towards smaller parties like Humayun Kabir’s AJUP and Navsad Siddiqui’s ISF, weakening its base in closely contested seats.
The BJP used this churn to its advantage, mobilizing migrant workers, targeting women voters with promises of high direct benefits to counter Mamata Banerjee’s much-talked-about Lakshmi Bhandar scheme, and harnessing the failures of governance as well as emotional issues.
Crucially, the election exposed a structural weakness within the TMC – its heavy reliance on Mamata Banerjee’s personal appeal without any strong organizational or ideological backbone – leaving it vulnerable when public sentiment changed decisively.
An earlier HT report quoted political analyst Debashish Dasgupta as saying, “This is a party that was completely dependent on Mamata’s image rather than its organizational strength. It also depended too much on the benefits of power and had no ideological base.”
as noted above earlier reportSeveral TMC leaders, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted that Banerjee’s drive to make Bengal opposition-free during her first term had led to her downfall – breaking the Congress alliance within a year of 2011, pushing the BJP into a political void and triggering polarization that ended on Monday, May 4.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the BJP’s Bengal victory on Monday, Mamata Banerjee promised to “bounce back” while parallel describing the party’s victory as “immoral” and massive “vote looting”.
