It Would Be Unwise for TMC to View the Bypoll Sweep as a Bellwether for 2026

Those who were writing Mamata Banerjee’s political obituary after the massive street protests in the wake of the brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata in August this year, are doubtless astonished by the results of the bypolls in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress won all six assembly seats, snatching one from the BJP, while significantly improving its victory margins in the others. Cock-a-hoop over its performance, the TMC has been quick to project it as a reaffirmation of its political stranglehold on Bengal and as proof that the Bengal chief minister has weathered the RG Kar storm, and has emerged, not just unscathed, but stronger than ever. Senior TMC leaders have been saying that Mamata should become the face of the Opposition because, unlike the Congress, which routinely crumbles before the BJP, as it did in Maharashtra last week, she has demonstrated time and again that she can beat back the march of the saffron party.