Nearly five decades have passed since the Indian National Congress last held power in West Bengal. Once the undisputed force in the state under leaders like Bidhan Chandra Roy and Siddhartha Shankar Ray, the party has been reduced to a marginal player, struggling even to emerge as a credible third force in the bipolar contest between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The 1977 Watershed: Ousted by the Left Front
The turning point came in the 1977 assembly elections, following the end of the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi. The Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) under Jyoti Basu, swept to power with a massive mandate, winning 231 seats. Congress, which had secured a landslide in 1972 with over 200 seats, was reduced to a mere 20 seats.
Jyoti Basu became Chief Minister and went on to serve a record 23 years until 2000, steering the Left Front through multiple victories. The Left’s emphasis on land reforms, panchayati raj, and rural mobilization eroded Congress’s traditional support base among peasants and workers. For 34 uninterrupted years (1977–2011), the Left dominated West Bengal, pushing Congress into a prolonged opposition role with limited influence.
The Rise of Mamata Banerjee and the Congress Split
Congress’s decline accelerated with the emergence of Mamata Banerjee, a former party leader known for her aggressive anti-Left campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s. Frustrated by the party’s inability to challenge the CPI(M) effectively and internal dynamics, Mamata was expelled from Congress in late 1997. She formed the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 1998.
The split proved devastating. TMC positioned itself as the more dynamic anti-Left alternative, capitalizing on public discontent over issues like the Singur and Nandigram land acquisitions under the Left government led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. In the 2011 elections, TMC, in alliance with Congress, decisively ended the Left’s 34-year rule. While Congress secured a respectable number of seats as a junior partner, it was clearly Mamata’s victory.
Post-2011, TMC consolidated its hold through populist welfare schemes, strong minority outreach, and Mamata’s charismatic street-fighter image. Congress’s organizational base continued to weaken as many of its voters and leaders gravitated toward the more assertive TMC. The “eclipse” by Mamata marked the end of Congress as a serious contender for power in Bengal.
The BJP Surge and Congress’s Marginalization
The 2010s witnessed the dramatic rise of the BJP in West Bengal, driven by national trends under Narendra Modi, Hindu consolidation, and anti-incumbency against TMC on issues of governance, infiltration, and development. In the 2021 assembly elections, TMC retained power with 215 seats, but BJP emerged as the principal opposition with a strong 77 seats—an unprecedented surge from just three seats in 2016.
In contrast, both Congress and the Left drew a complete blank, winning zero seats. Congress’s vote share plummeted to around 3%, reflecting its inability to hold ground in a sharpening TMC-BJP binary. Earlier alliances with the Left had failed to deliver results, and the party’s traditional pockets in areas like Malda and Murshidabad eroded further.
The 2026 Scenario: Fighting for Relevance
As West Bengal prepares for the 2026 assembly elections (scheduled for April), Congress has opted to contest all 294 seats independently, fielding heavyweights such as Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Baharampur and Mausam Noor from Malatipur. This “solo” strategy ends a long-standing understanding with the Left Front, which itself has allied with the Indian Secular Front.
Analysts view the 2026 contest primarily as a battle between TMC and BJP, with Congress and the Left struggling for survival. Opinion polls suggest TMC remains the frontrunner to retain power, while BJP aims to build on its 2021 gains. Congress’s vote share has hovered at alarmingly low levels in recent polls (around 3-5%), and without a strong grassroots revival or charismatic local leadership, the party risks further irrelevance.
The “50-year exile” underscores deeper structural challenges for Congress in Bengal: historical anti-Congress waves post-Emergency, successful regional alternatives that captured its voter base, internal factionalism, and the shift to identity and welfare-driven politics. From ruling the state decisively in the early 1970s to being sidelined first by the disciplined Left machine under Jyoti Basu, then by Mamata’s disruptive energy, and finally crushed in the TMC-BJP polarization, Congress’s journey reflects its broader national decline in several states.
Revival remains an uphill task. It would require rebuilding organizational strength, crafting a distinct narrative on development and secularism, and capitalizing on any three-cornered anti-incumbency. For now, however, Bengal’s politics has largely moved on, leaving the once-mighty Congress as a shadow of its former self.
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