Following the defeat of its Constitution amendment Bills in Parliament, the BJP sought to turn the early implementation of women’s reservation — which was linked to the delimitation exercise — into a major poll issue in West Bengal. During his campaign rallies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the TMC of not wanting more “daughters of Bengal” to become MLAs and MPs. After the BJP’s victory, he argued that the verdict amounted to a punishment for the TMC’s role in stalling the Bill. An analysis of the election results, however, shows that despite women’s issues, including the R G Kar Medical College rape and murder case, dominating the electoral discourse, the strength of women MLAs in the new West Bengal Assembly has declined from around 15% in the outgoing House to 12.5%. The TMC fielded more women candidates than the BJP, and the share of women candidates in the party’s overall tally was also higher than that of the BJP. The TMC fielded 52 women candidates.…