With West Bengal assembly elections just months away, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning a major push to win the state in 2026. The party has identified 70 key assembly seats where it lost by small margins in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and is now focusing on them for a possible comeback.
According to BJP leaders, these 70 seats are seen as “winnable” because the party lost them by less than 15,000 votes. Out of these, 49 seats were lost by under 10,000 votes. These include important areas like Naba Dwip, Nakashipara, Sonarpur South, Barrackpore, Dum Dum North, Rajarhat-Gopalpur, and parts of Kolkata such as Rashbehari, Bhabanipur, and Maniktala.
In the other 21 seats, the party trailed by 10,000 to 15,000 votes. These include Hingalganj, Basirhat South, Howrah North, Shibpur, Katwa, Suri, and Chowringhee.
Sources say that during a recent internal meeting, BJP leaders agreed to immediately begin campaigning and strengthen local booth-level committees in these constituencies. The idea is to use anti-incumbency against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) to their advantage.
A BJP state leader said, “Our aim is not just to hold on to the 92 seats where we led in the last election, but to win these 70 close ones. That’s how we change the game.”
In the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, the BJP had won 77 out of 294 seats. The TMC had won big with 213 seats. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s numbers dropped from 18 seats in 2019 to 12. TMC, on the other hand, won 29 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats.
Now, with careful planning and early campaigning, the BJP hopes to close the gap and return stronger in the 2026 state polls.
