KOLKATA: The Kolkata fortress of Trinamool Congress was breached on Monday, leaving a trail of high-profile casualties that included party chief Mamata Banerjee.In a staggering reversal of 2021 – when it swept all 11 Kolkata seats – Trinamool was reduced to a mere five. The city’s southern suburbs voted for change, handing over its strongholds Jadavpur and Sonarpur to BJP. Kasba, however, remained loyal to the party.The scale of the collapse could be measured by the defeat of senior ministers who were considered architects of the party’s urban machinery. But Mamata’s defeat will rankle the most.Shashi Panja lost Shyampukur to RSS ideologue Purnima Chakraborty by a margin of 14,633. Similarly, influential power minister Aroop Biswas, a key organiser in south Kolkata, lost what was once a safe haven — Tollygunge. Actor Papia Adhikary drew the curtains on him.The administrative leadership of the city also faced a public trial. Atin Ghosh, deputy mayor of Kolkata, lost from the Belgachhia-Cossipore segment to BJP’s Ritesh Tiwari by 1651 votes. The rout extended to his mayor-in-council colleagues – Debasish Kumar from Rashbehari, who was defeated by Swapan Dasgupta of BJP, and Debabrata Majumdar from Jadavpur.Ratna Chatterjee, sitting MLA and former councillor, lost Behala West to oncologist Indranil Khan of BJP. The constituency had elected former education minister Partha Chatterjee for five terms since 2001. There were some face-saving victories for TMC though. Mayor Firhad Hakim secured Kolkata Port while veteran leader Sobhandeb Chatterjee won in Ballygunge. State minister Javed Ahmed Khan won for the fourth consecutive time in Kasba and party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh won in Beliaghata. Veteran politician Nayana Bandyopadhyay bagged Chowringhee and Sandipan Saha won from Entally.The BJP juggernaut rolled through Kashipur-Belgachhia, Shyampukur, Maniktala and Jorasanko, which had remained with Trinamool since the ‘Paribartan’ in 2011. In Jorasanko, BJP’s Vijay Ojha defeated Trinamool candidate Vijay Upadhyay by a margin of 5,797. In 2021, former Trinamool MLA Vivek Gupta had defeated BJP candidate Meena Devi Purohit by 12,743.Maniktala had been a TMC bastion since 2011 when Sadhan Pande won. After his death in 2024, wife Supti Pande had secured a victory. This time their dau-ghter, Shreya Pande lost to BJP’s Tapas Roy by 15,644 votes.On the outskirts, Bhangar was won by ISF’s Naushad Siddiqui, who defeated influential south Kolkata leader Saokat Molla of Trinamool. Veteran actor Rupa Ganguly defeated Lovely Maitra, MLA in Sonarpur South. In Sonarpur North, BJP’s Debasish Dhar was leading by over 11,000 over Trinamool MLA Firdousi Begum.Trinamool also lost its 15-year strongholds of Bidhannagar and Rajarhat Gopalpur. TMC, however, managed to retain Rajarhat New Town with Tapash Chatterjee winning by a narrow margin.
