West Bengal Election Results 2026: BJP's Ratna Debnath, RG Kar victim's mother, takes early lead in Panihati

Ratna Debnath, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in the West Bengal Assembly Election and mother of RG Kar's rape and murder victim, took an early lead over the Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate in the Panihati Assembly constituency on Monday, 4 May.

The West Bengal Election Results will be declared on Monday, as voting began at 8 AM.

Debnath was leading by over 2700 votes after the first round of counting ended around 11:30 AM, according to the Election Commission's data. There are 13 rounds of vote counting.

The BJP fielded Debnath against TMC's Tirthankar Ghosh, CPI(M)'s Kalatan Dasgupta and the Congress's Subhashish Bhattacharya (Tata).

Debnath is the mother of the woman who was allegedly raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August 2024.

‘My main enemy is Mamata Banerjee’

Earlier in April, Ratna Debnath had said, “My main enemy is Mamata Banerjee because she's the health minister, and my daughter worked for the health department.”

"Why didn't Mamata Banerjee save my daughter? I never comb my hair; I'll take an oath until my daughter gets justice — I won't comb my hair…People are supporting me and want to see Mamata Banerjee defeated," Ratna Debnath said.

Ratna Debnath also held an election campaign alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During his speech at a rally in Panihati under the Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency in North 24 Parganas, PM Modi said the TMC's "maha jungle raaj" was responsible for the RG Kar Medical College rape and murder case.

She had said that people will uproot and throw out the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) when the Assembly election results are announced on 4 May.

Speaking to ANI, Debnath added that everyone is prepared to vote Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee out of power, pointing to her previous statements on women's safety.

Debnath said, “Thank you very much to the people; there has never been such a high voter turnout as there was this time. People will uproot and throw out the TMC. Everyone is ready to remove Mamata Banerjee. Our only regret is that when such an incident happens, our female Chief Minister herself insults women…Those who say such things that girls should not go out after 8 PM, when my daughter was murdered, they said that girls should not do night duty. This time Bengal will fight against this...”

West Bengal Election Results today

Counting of votes for the high-stakes assembly elections in West Bengal began at 8 AM on Monday, with the verdict set to decide whether the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC returns to power for a fourth consecutive term or the BJP scripts history by forming its first government in the state.

The counting is being held for 293 of 294 assembly segments in 77 centres across 23 districts of the state under a multi-layered security cordon, deciding the fate of 2,926 candidates.

The elections were held under the shadow of the SIR exercise, in which the names of around 91 lakh people were removed from the electoral rolls, leaving them at around 6.82 crore.