Kolkata: As BJP is coming to power for the first time in the history of West Bengal with a huge mandate of single largest majority in this Assembly Election, its aggressive poll campaign against the Trinamul Congress-rule over the infiltration issue for appeasement politics, amidst the Election Commission’s special intensive revision of the voters’ list, appears to have caused a regime change after 15 years in the state.
What further aided BJP in swinging away votes from TMC were its manifesto promises that included ₹3000 monthly assistance, a double of what the Mamata Banerjee government started disbursing just before the polls, and the implementation of the seventh pay commission to woo several lakhs of state government employees about the fulfillment of their long-standing demand. Among others were the saffron party’s assurance to the common Bengalis about no ban on their favourite delicacy, Machh-Bhat (fish and rice), which worked as an icing on the cake, and a vow of crackdown on the TMC syndicates and scams in government jobs.
All these earned BJP a desired result as soon as the counting of votes at 293 seats got underway on Monday morning. Saffron surge reflected everywhere from hills to plains of the state. Till night, BJP topped the list with 207 seats among which it won 187 seats, crossing the magic figure which has come down to 147 from 148 since the poll at Falta seat has been rescheduled on May 21.
The saffron party was still leading in another 20 in the trends. On the other hand, TMC, which won 216 seats in 2021 increased its tally to 226, bagged only 64 seats this time while leading in 16 others. Congress and CPI(M), which lost their deposits in the last Assembly polls here, reopened their accounts. While Congress got two seats, the Left party won one. Aam Janata Unnayan Party also won two seats in its first poll participation. The Indian Secular Front retained its Bhangar seat.
The big losers include party supremo and three-time chief minister Mamata Banerjee at her home turf: Bhowanipore. She lost to her main rival Suvendu Adhikari of BJP by 15,105 votes. “I was hit and pushed inside. BJP is a monstrous party which looted more than 100 seats by cheating. EC is a BJP commission,” Ms Banerjee alleged after coming out of the counting centre angrily. She looked devastated. This was her second defeat to Mr Adhikari after Nandigram where she lost by 1,956 votes in 2021.
Mr Adhikari, who also won at Nandigram this time, said of Ms Banerjee, “Her defeat was necessary. She has entered political sanyas. I dedicate this victory to those who lost their lives for Hindutva.” Among other TMC heavyweights who lost, were several ministers, Shashi Panja (Shyampukur), Sujit Bose (Bidhannagar), Bratya Basu (Dum Dum), Chandrima Bhattacharya (Dum Dum North). While the exact reason behind the landslide defeat of TMC is yet to be ascertained, party insiders hinted at the anti- incumbency which had silently hit the rank and file.
They revealed that Ms Banerjee was aware of the crucial factor and desperately tried to cover it up with her anti-SIR movement including a fierce legal battle at the Supreme Court to woo the public against the large-scale deletion of voters’ names but she failed. Besides, ticket distribution triggered a huge discontent as many successful sitting MLAs were dropped at one go by the party following the recommendation of its consulting firm: I-PAC, sources disclosed before adding that Ms Banerjee’s MP nephew Abhishek Banerjee played a key role in the candidates’ selection this time.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
