Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

First phase polling pattern hints 20-25 lakh ‘sleeping voters'—who usually do not vote—may have turned up at the polling stations this year

In a largely bipolar election between the TMC and the BJP, the Congress and the Left remain factors in about 60 of the state's 294 assembly seats

While disputes around the legitimacy of 27 lakh voters remain unsolved, filmy heroism, comic relief, barbs and jibes added colour to the tainted West Bengal elections

A voter deletion exercise spiked up voter turnout, turning India's most intensely fought election the most unpredictable.

BJP's Bengal Breakthrough: How It Changed the State's Political Map

The opposition has raised concerns over possible electoral manipulations, threats to the federal structure, and democratic balance.

The march of the saffron party has been relentless in the East. It has moved through the cracks left behind by ageing regional satraps, turning every faultline into a foothold

An agreement to share the waters of the Teesta River will not go down well in northern West Bengal.

Over 80 percent of India's border with Bangladesh now falls under the direct rule of the BJP, which thrives on anti-migrant rhetoric.

The victory of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent elections to the West Bengal state assembly has been received with mixed feelings in neighboring Bangladesh. On the one hand, it has raised hopes among some sections in Bangladesh that with the defeat of Mamata Banerjee’s government, an important “obstacle” in the way of an agreement on the sharing of the Teesta River’s waters has been removed. On the other hand, Bangladeshis are anxious that with the BJP now ruling four of the five Indian states that border Bangladesh, India could escalate the “push-back” of alleged undocumented migrants into Bangladesh.