The defeat of the Trinamool Congress in Raiganj and Maldaha Uttar has prompted the party to get back to the drawing board to conceive ideas to stop erosion in the minority vote bank.

In the two segments, the election results have shown that Muslim votes were divided between Trinamool and the Congress, helping the BJP win the seats.

“Throughout the campaign, the Trinamool rank and file, including the chief minister, had focused on the minority community which backed the party in every election. But in Raiganj and Maldaha Uttar, Trinamool’s plan went awry as the Congress fielded Muslim faces who took away the TMC’s shares of the pie,” said Debasish Biswas, a political analyst in Raiganj.

The Grand Old Party had fielded Ali Imran Ramz in Raiganj and Mostaque Alam in Maldaha Uttar.

Trinamool chairperson Mamata Banerjee fumed at the Congress and the candidates in her campaign. “They are acting as vote-cutters to help the BJP,” she said.

Mamata was proved right when the results were declared on Tuesday. The BJP emerged victorious in both the constituencies as the Congress secured leads in Muslim-dominated Assembly segments.

In Maldaha Uttar, Alam polled the highest votes in the Assembly segments of Chanchal, Harishchandrapur, Malatipur and Ratua. Altogether, he secured 3.84 lakh votes and finished third.

His votes helped Khagen Murmu of the BJP win the seat for the second time with a margin of over 75,000 votes.

Khagen Murmu (garlanded and with a saffron scarf) with BJP supporters after his victory in Malda on Tuesday. Picture by Soumya De Sarkar

Assembly seat-wise, Ramz polled the highest votes in Chakulia and 666 votes less than Trinamool in Goalpokhar. The total votes polled by the Congress were 2.63 lakh.

Kartick Chandra Paul of the BJP won the Raiganj seat by 68,197 votes.

Trinamool has never won Raiganj and Maldaha Uttar.

However, in the 2021 Assembly elections, Trinamool won five of seven Assembly segments in the Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency. The BJP bagged two. Later, both the BJP MLAs joined Trinamool.

Similarly, in Maldaha Uttar, Trinamool won four Assembly seats while the remaining three went to the BJP.

“The Assembly election results showed that the party had prospects in both the Lok Sabha segments. However, after the results were declared yesterday (Tuesday), we are perturbed by the division of minority votes. Ahead of 2026, we have to get to the ground to consolidate our vote bank to prevent a repetition,” said a Trinamool functionary in Malda.

On Tuesday, Mamata again expressed her disgruntlement with the Congress’s decision to field Muslim candidates in Raiganj and Maldaha Uttar.

“We had offered two seats to the Congress and it would have won both. But instead, they took a different decision in the state. What benefit did they get by contesting from these seats? she asked.