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Informist, Tuesday, May 5, 2026

NEW DELHI – Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Tuesday asked his party leaders not to rejoice over the electoral defeat of the Trinamool Congress in the West Bengal Assembly election, saying that "the theft" of the people's mandate in Assam and Bengal by the Bharatiya Janata Party was a big step towards destroying Indian democracy.

"Some in the Congress, and others, are gloating about TMC's loss," Gandhi said in a post on social media platform X. "They need to understand this clearly -- the theft of Assam and Bengal's mandate is a big step forward by the BJP in its mission to destroy Indian democracy." He urged Opposition parties to "put petty politics aside", as the matter is not about one party or another, but about the country itself.

The BJP received a clear mandate to form the government in West Bengal, winning 206 seats of the total 292 seats whose results were declared by the Election Commission on Monday. It managed a vote share of 45.8% against Trinamool's 40.8%, thus ending Mamata Banerjee's 15 years of rule in the state.

Rahul Gandhi, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, spoke at length with Mamata on Monday evening to discuss the outcome. The Congress had fought separately and won two seats in West Bengal. A few incidents of clashes between the Congress and Trinamool workers during polling were also reported.  

On Monday, Gandhi had also posted on X that Assam and West Bengal are "clear cases of the election being stolen by the BJP with the support of the EC (Election Commission of India)". "We agree with Mamata ji. More than 100 seats were stolen in Bengal," he had said. In Assam, the Congress won 19 of the total 126 seats, around four times lower than the BJP's tally of 82 seats.

In the run-up to the polls, the Trinamool Congress accused the Election Commission of being biased, and also alleged that the BJP was misusing central investigative agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department, as well as the Central Armed Police Forces, which were deployed in an unprecedentedly high numbers in West Bengal during the election.   

"We have seen this playbook before: Madhya Pradesh. Haryana. Maharashtra. Lok Sabha 2024 etc," Gandhi said. "Election stolen, institutions stolen... what is the way out now?"  End

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

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