In its first ever Assembly election victory in West Bengal, the BJP not only managed to retain all 77 seats it had won in the 2021 polls, but it also flipped 129 seats from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), concentrated in the state’s southern districts, once known to be the Mamata Banerjee-led party’s stronghold. An analysis of the results shows that across all 293 seats where polling has been held, 135 seats have changed hands between the 2021 and 2026 elections. While the TMC ceded 129 seats to the BJP, it also lost 2 seats each to the Congress and Humayun Kabir-led Aam Janata Unnayan (AJU) and 1 to the CPI(M). The BJP also picked up the Kalimpong seat from the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha. The TMC, however, failed to flip any seats from other parties. While the BJP was able to retain all 77 seats it had won in 2021, the TMC only retained 80 of the 215 seats it had won five years ago. The Indian Secular Front (ISF) retained the Bhangore seat, the only one it won in 2021.…