"People bestowed their upon me": BJP's Dilip Ghosh after winning Kharagpur Sadar assembly in West Bengal polls

Speaking with ANI, Dilip Ghosh said, "The public of the Kharagpur Sadar Assembly constituency has bestowed its trust upon me...The public has a lot of expectations from the party as they voted overwhelmingly for us."

Dilip Ghosh secured victory with a margin of 30,506 votes against Trinamool Congress' Pradip Sarkar, receiving a total of 89,885 votes.

BJP's victory in West Bengal marks a significant moment for the party as it has been for long a marginal player in the state dominated for years by the Congress, Left parties and later Trinamool Congress.

The BJP won 206 seats in West Bengal, performing way better than in the 2021 assembly elections, in which they won 77 seats.

Trinamool Congress, which swept the last assembly poll by winning 212 seats, finished a distant second with 80 seats and is leading in one seat.

Despite the BJP's sweeping seat victory, the vote share revealed a more competitive undercurrent. The party secured 45.84% of the vote, while the TMC followed closely with 40.80%, highlighting that the electoral battle remained fiercely contested at the grassroots level.

The CPI(M) garnered 4.45%, and Congress secured 2.97%, while other smaller parties and independents collectively contributed around 4.28%. The numbers suggest that while the BJP translated its vote share into a decisive seat advantage, the Opposition retained a substantial voter base--pointing to a divided yet shifting electorate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the BJP's sweeping victory in West Bengal as a "historic fulfillment" of the dream of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee. For the BJP, this win transcends politics; it is the ultimate validation of their founder's mission to secure and prosper the state.

In 1947, Mookerjee was the decisive voice against the "United Bengal" plan. He successfully argued that if India was partitioned, the Hindu-majority regions of Bengal must remain part of the Indian Union. After resigning from Nehru's cabinet in 1950, Mookerjee collaborated with MS Golwalkar (RSS) to create a political alternative. In 1951, he founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the direct organisational ancestor of the modern-day BJP. (ANI)