DEVADEEP PUROHIT Calcutta: Trinamool has vanquished the BJP in Bengal cornering around 46 per cent votes and bagging 29 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats, cementing Mamata Banerjee s position as the country s most formidable Opposition leader for the second time in three years after the 2021 Assembly polls

Despite its tall claims about "uprooting" the Trinamool Congress from Bengal and getting "30-plus seats", the BJP ended a poor second with 12 seats and 39 per cent votes

As in 2021, Mamata has beaten heavy odds at a time when most pundits and pollsters had written her off following the corruption scandals engulfing her party and the Sandeshkhali charges of atrocities on women

The chief minister braved age and injury to crisscross the whole of Bengal, addressing 107 rallies and 20-odd road shows, to eventually have the last laugh

"Bengal was tortured the most…. They inflicted the CBI, ED, income-tax department and even the media," Mamata said at a news conference at her 30B Harish Chatterjee Street home on Tuesday evening, while listing the challenges she had been up against

"They used the courts to take away the jobs of 26,000 people. Then the OBC certificates of about 15 lakh people were cancelled." She also cited other constraints, from the central agencies role to the money power the BJP brought into play against her party

"They threatened my min- isters, my MLAs, my councillors.... They sent money to buy us, but still couldn t do anything," she said, with nephew and political heir apparent Abhishek Banerjee, the party s all-India general secretary, by her side

This election has witnessed Abhishek s rise as Trinamool s principal poll strategist, a task performed by Prashant Kishor in 2021. Abhishek played a key role in picking the candidates and working out the campaign planks

The Bengal verdict holds significance for both the state and beyond. It means the BJP, which won just 77 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections, will have to make a fresh start for the 2026 battle

The BJP had fielded its topmost leaders in the Bengal campaign, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself addressing 22 rallies since the polls were announced

While Modi s personal appeal didn t work, the results also flagged the BJP s organisational weakness in Bengal

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