New Delhi : Despite the BJP’s thumping win in the Bengal elections, the battle was undoubtedly intense. Nearly 20 constituencies witnessed nail-biting contests, with victory margins of less than 5,000 votes. But none was as close as the election in Rajarhat New Town seat, whose result flipped to the BJP after a Muslim-majority booth in Musalman Para voted en masse for the saffron party. The BJP received an unprecedented 97% of the votes in the booth, overturning the lead for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after an additional round of counting was held on May 5, according to a report in Scroll.
In the end, BJP’s Piyush Kanodia won by a very slim margin of 316 votes against Trinamool’s Tapash Chatterjee. Overall, the BJP won 207 seats. The twist in Rajarhat has led to the TMC, which was upstaged by the BJP after 15 years, to question the credibility of the election results. TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose asserted that it showed that the elections were stolen.
TRINAMOOL QUESTIONS CREDIBILITY
“Where is the Election Commission, Vanish Kumar and the Supreme Court? TMC was steadily winning Rajarhat-New Town until one mostly Muslim booth was counted out of turn in the final round and 97% of its vote went to BJP,” Ghose tweeted. “Vanish Kumar” is believed to be a swipe at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, who has had frequent run-ins with the TMC in the run-up to the polls.
Senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan also weighed in, suggesting “EVM manipulation”. “That a Muslim majority booth votes 97% for BJP is clear evidence of EVM manipulation or EVM replacement or returning officer of ECI declaring a vote which is totally different from what the EVM recorded,” Bhushan posted.
The revelation has put the counting process itself under scrutiny. At the centre of the dispute is booth number 164 in Musalman Para in Rajarhat New Town in north Kolkata, which voted in the second phase on April 29. Booth number 165 is also part of the locality. As the name suggests, the majority of the population in Musalman Para are Muslims.
The voters of the two booths in Musalman Para cast their votes at the same polling centre (Jagadishpur School). Now, during the counting of votes on May 4, booth number 164 was allegedly skipped during Round 9 counting, according to Scroll’s analysis.
HOW BJP WON RAJARHAT SEAT IN BENGAL?
In the Rajarhat seat, a total of 18 rounds of counting took place. On May 4, 17 rounds were counted. Till midnight, Trinamool Congress’s Tapash Chatterjee had a slender lead over BJP’s Kanodia of 316 votes.
Booth number 164, which was allegedly skipped on May 4, was counted separately during the 18th and final round the next day (May 5). It was the only booth left to be counted. The results were not only shocking but also flipped the script in favour of the BJP.
As per Election Commission data, 656 votes were cast in booth number 164. Surprisingly, the BJP got 637 votes and the TMC only five. That means the BJP got 97% of the votes cast at this booth. Out of the 637, 558 votes were of Muslims. This means around 88% of the Muslims in booth 164 voted for the BJP – an unprecedented scenario considering past voting patterns.
This erased the TMC’s lead, and the BJP’s Kanodia won by 316 votes – the same margin by which he was trailing till votes in booth 164 were counted.
Now, as we mentioned previously, Musalman Para has two booths – 164 and 165. The results of booth 165 were sharply different. Here, 91% of the voters are Muslims, but despite being from the same locality, they voted vastly differently. The BJP received only 32 or 5% of the 638 votes cast. The Left candidate got the maximum votes (299), followed by the TMC (290).
Thus, two booths in the same locality, both having a Muslim-majority population, voted starkly differently. While 97% of the voters backed the BJP in booth 164, in booth 165, the TMC and the Left got the maximum votes.
WHY THE RESULT WAS SURPRISING?
Why are the results surprising? It is no secret that the BJP has historically struggled to get Muslim votes, especially in Bengal.
Now, see the past pattern. In the 2024 Lok Sabha and the 2021 Assembly elections in Bengal, the BJP received only 4-7% of the state’s Muslim votes. The Trinamool received nearly 70-75% of the votes. That has always been the pattern since the TMC came to power in 2011. Mamata Banerjee’s welfare schemes ensured that the Muslim vote bank remained steady with the Trinamool over the past decade.
But, in the 2026 elections, there was a split in the near-total minority consolidation behind the TMC that was seen previously. In Muslim-majority districts, voters dispersed across Congress, Left, ISF, and smaller outfits like Humayun Kabir’s AJUP. This significantly benefited the BJP.
An analysis showed that across 142 Muslim-majority seats, the BJP won 72, and the Trinamool Congress 64. This was a major factor behind the TMC’s rout in the Bengal polls. But the twist in the Rajarhat seat, where one booth changed the plot for the TMC, will remain a mystery.
