The high-profile Bhabanipur Assembly constituency is looking forward to an interesting ending. While TMC chief Mamata Banerjee jumped to an excellent lead of over 19,000 votes after a see-saw battle in the opening few rounds, BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari threatened a late twist as he narrowed the gap to nearly 60 per cent by the end of 12 of the 20 rounds of counting.
Banerjee opened with a slim margin of 1,996 votes in the first round, garnering 3,666 votes to Adhikari’s 1,670, before the opposition leader flipped the script to lead the incumbent prime minister by 1,558 votes. However, Banerjee quickly bounced back in the third round to lead by just 898 votes, and never looked back. By the sixth round, the lead had risen to over 19,000, although the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) faced defeat in the overall West Bengal scenario.
Kolkata election result 2026 live
However, the lead continued to decline round by round after that, falling to 17,371 votes by the end of the seventh round, 15,494 votes in the eighth round, 12,131 votes in the tenth round, and 7,184 votes in the twelfth round.
According to Election Commission data, Banerjee got 44,729 votes to Adhikari’s 37,545, with eight more rounds of counting remaining.
Banerjee vs Adhikari – A quick look at how allies turn into enemies
Adhikari had long served as Banerjee’s lieutenant in the TMC and was at the forefront during the 2007/08 Nandigram movement against the then Left Front government. That movement propelled Mamata to victory in the 2011 legislative elections, ending 34 years of communist rule in Bengal.
It was only in 2020 that Adhikari switched base and joined the BJP after realizing he could be marginalized from the party he helped build, amid the growing influence of Mamata’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee.
The rivalry eventually crystallized in the 2021 elections when he challenged Mamata Adhikari on his home turf in Nandigram. The former lost by a very narrow margin of 1,956 votes. Although it was a personal defeat for Banerjee, TMC won across the state.
Why does Mamata vs Suvendu 2.0 matter?
The rivalry reached fever pitch when, in a dramatic reversal, Adhikari, who is also contesting from Nandigram, now challenges Banerjee on her home turf. He described this as “the final nail in the coffin” of the Transitional Military Council. The phrase was used in reference to the vote on account introduced by the TMC in February. “Today, in the vote on account, Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, on the instructions of Mamata Banerjee, has put the final nail in the coffin of the dreams of 2.15 crore youth, clearly indicating that they should not expect jobs from the government.”
