PM Modi wears traditional Bengali dhoti and kurta as BJP clean sweeps West Bengal for first time

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Monday dressed in a traditional Bengali-style dhoti, marking the party’s sweeping victory in West Bengal.

The BJP is on course to form its first government in West Bengal as it raced ahead in more than 200 seats, way past the majority mark, to end the TMC's 15-year rule and paint the state saffron in a major political upheaval.

The signs were evident in the early leads, and it soon hardened into a sweep nearing a two-thirds majority.


The BJP has already won 18 seats and was leading in another 185, while the TMC lagged far behind with a handful of victories and lead in fewer than 90 seats as counting progressed.



The scale of the surge, as the BJP breached the halfway mark of 148 in the 294-member Assembly well before counting reached its midpoint, hinted not just at a change of guard, but also to a structural shift in Bengal's political landscape.

The BJP's vote share rising to around 45 per cent from 38 per cent in 2021 marks both consolidation and expansion, while the TMC's dip to nearly 40.94 per cent from 48 per cent in the last assembly polls reflects erosion across segments that anchored its sweep five years ago.