Five assembly elections were held in the spring of 2026, with results declared on 4 May. According to Wikipedia, voting took place in Assam on 9 April, in Tamil Nadu on 23 April and in West Bengal on 23 and 29 April, while the dates for Kerala and Puducherry are not given in the page text reviewed. The outcome changed the party in power in three of the five.
In West Bengal, the BJP won and ended the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule. Suvendu Adhikari became chief minister, and India TV’s live coverage reported that Mamata Banerjee was defeated in Bhabanipur by Adhikari. Reports give different seat counts for the BJP, which are covered in a separate IndiaX24 article, and the TMC was reduced to the opposition benches.
In Tamil Nadu, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, founded by the actor Vijay, emerged as the single largest party, with 108 seats in the 234-member assembly according to Wikipedia, though early trends on counting day had it leading in 107 or 109 seats. Vijay became chief minister with the support of the Congress and other parties, and the outgoing chief minister, M. K. Stalin, lost his Kolathur seat. Turnout was 85.1 per cent, the highest in the state’s history.
In Kerala, the Congress-led United Democratic Front won 102 of 140 seats, according to Onmanorama, and ended the rule of the Left Democratic Front after two consecutive terms. V. D. Satheesan became chief minister. India TV’s live coverage reported that the BJP won three seats in the state, which it described as breaking an electoral drought.
In Assam, the BJP-led alliance returned to power for a third consecutive term. The BJP won 82 of 126 seats, with its allies the Asom Gana Parishad and the Bodoland People’s Front taking 10 each, which together make 102, and Himanta Biswa Sarma continued as chief minister. Turnout was 85.96 per cent.
In Puducherry, the All India N. R. Congress retained power with N. Rangaswamy as chief minister, according to Wikipedia’s table. India TV’s live report described the AINRC, BJP and AIADMK alliance as crossing the majority mark with a lead of 16 seats, but that was a trend and not a final figure, and the sources reviewed do not give the final seat count.
The elections were held alongside three Lok Sabha by-elections, in Nagaon, Shillong and Basirhat, and with elections to the Rajya Sabha running from March to October, in which the National Democratic Alliance kept control, gaining a net 13 seats across 74 contested seats according to Wikipedia. The Rajya Sabha rounds are covered in separate IndiaX24 articles.
The results shape the politics of the next phase. The Congress now governs Kerala and shares power in Tamil Nadu, the BJP governs West Bengal and Assam, and Tamil Nadu has a government led by a new party after about six decades in which Dravidian parties dominated. The next test is the 2027 round, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, which IndiaX24 also reports.
Individual state results are covered in detail in IndiaX24’s articles on West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam, which give the seat tallies, vote shares and swearing-in dates, together with the points where the sources disagree.
Featured image: Polling officers receiving voting machines for an assembly election in Assam, April 2011 (file photo; a stand-in image for the 2026 elections). Photo by Election Commission of India, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
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