Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s hopes of improving on its 2019 performance in Bengal have received a summary blow this time. This, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi doing over 40 roadshows and rallies in the state, ahead of and during the Lok Sabha polls, with various ministers, parliamentarians and party leaders. Modi touched almost all the seats the BJP was contesting in Bengal with either roadshows or meetings.
Part of the BJP’s initial cry of ‘400 paar’ or ‘beyond 400 seats’ was the assertion that Bengal will add significantly to the tally. The exit polls did nothing to disabuse of this notion.
Except today, the picture could not be more different. Three Union ministers fielded by the BJP have lost or are trailing behind. They are junior youth affairs and sports minister Nishith Pramanik (contesting from Coochbehar), junior education minister Subhash Sarkar (from Bankura) and junior women and child development minister Debashree Chaudhuri (from South Kolkata).
Dilip Ghosh, one of the most prominent BJP faces in Bengal, is trailing by over 130,000 votes in the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency.
Saving face is BJP’s Tamluk candidate, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, the former Calcutta high court judge who blew the lid over the state’s school jobs scam.
But it is not just the BJP who has had to nurse heartbreaks in Bengal. For the Congress, defeat has been significant too, if on a smaller scale. Pradesh Congress Committee chief and the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has lost from Baharampur. The veteran leader is a five-time MP. TMC’s Yusuf Pathan, who had been touted as an “outsider” looks set to beat Chowdhury.
The Left, which was hoping to reopen its books in Bengal, was unable to do so either. The strong buzz surrounding Mohammed Salim in Murshidabad looks to have only led to disappointment.
Also read: From Baharampur to Diamond Harbour: How Muslim Votes Impact the Big Fights in West Bengal
For the TMC, these polls have been a show of strength. The party’s second-in-command and general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, is winning Diamond Harbour seat by a margin of over seven lakh votes. In the Basirhat seat which houses Sandeshkhali – from where allegations of abuse against TMC strongmen had emerged – is also seeing TMC candidate Nurul Islam ahead.
At Krishnanagar, Mahua Moitra who had been expelled from the Lok Sabha last term, is poised to win. Not only does Moitra face unparalleled negative attention from the BJP and its supporters, her candidacy had been opposed by many within TMC as well.
Abhishek Banerjee and Mamata Banerjee. Photo: X/@abhishekaitc
TMC’s victory clearly hinges on its enduring popularity with women. That Mamata Banerjee’s traditional voter base of Muslims have also not deserted her party is also evident.
At present, the vote share is roughly at 46% for TMC and 38% for BJP. The Left has 6% and Congress 5% – both have registered a 2% increase in vote share so far.
In some places, Left candidates are certain to have pulled votes from BJP – which helped in TMC consolidating its lead.
Most of the candidates who changed parties just before the polls did not make a mark, including Tapas Roy who left for BJP and Mukut Mani Adhikari who joined the TMC.
Translated from the Bengali original by Soumashree Sarkar.
