Assembly polls 2016: Green landslide in West Bengal

Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee led her Trinamul Congress to a landslide victory, scoring a double century in the Bengal Assembly election, trouncing Left-Congress combine. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first to congratulate her over phone. Ms Banerjee will be sworn in as chief minister of Bengal for the second term on May 27. The new government must be formed by May 29.

Although virtually all exit polls had predicted a Trinamul Congress victory, there was uncertainty and confusion over the outcome of the longest Assembly polls held in the state in six phases which stretched to more than a month. “It is an unprecedented victory. The people have showered their blessings on us rejecting baseless canards that the Opposition spread against us. I thank the Maa Maati Maanush of Bengal from bottom of my heart for reaffirming their faith in Trinamul Congress,” Ms Banerjee said, adding the people have voted for development.

In 2011, chanting the clarion cry of paribartan, Ms Banerjee had dislodged the CPI(M)-led Left Front from power after 34 year long rule.

TMC-Congress alliance had won 226 and Trinamul Congress alone had secured 184 seats. This time, TMC contested alone and bagged a huge tally of 212 of 294 Assembly seats.

By 10 am, when it became clear that Trinamul Congress was heading for huge victory, celebrations began in the city and districts. By 3 pm the Trinamul tsunami swept away the Opposition: CPI(M) was reduced to an all-time low of 26 seats while Congress won 44. One must keep in mind that the CPI(M) had contested 147 seats while Congress had contested 94 seats. The BJP opened its account in state Assembly election and won three seats. In 2001 BJP’s Badal Bhattacharya and in 2014 Samik Bhattacharya had won Assembly bypolls but the saffron party had never won a single seat in any Assembly election in the past.

Read: Bengal polls: 5 ministers and Madan Mitra among heavyweight losers

The Trinamul Congress’ vote share jumped to 45 per cent from 39 per cent in 2011. The CPI(M)’s vote share plummeted to 19.7 per cent from 30 per cent. The Congress’ vote share rose from 9.09 per cent to 12.3 per cent. The BJP’s vote share in 2011 was merely 4 per cent which rose to 17 per cent in 2014 Lok Sabha election. This time BJP not only won three seats but also bagged an impressive 10.2 per cent vote share.

Ms Banerjee retained her Bhowanipore seat by defeating Left-supported Congress candidate Deepa Das Munshi by over 25,000 votes. In the triangular contest, the BJP candidate and a scion of Netaji family Chandra Bose came third bagging a little over 26,000 votes.

Ironically, while the ruling party won a stunning majority, some of its ministers including Chandrima Bhattacharya, Manish Gupta, Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury, Savitri Mitra lost their seats. Six leaders who were caught on camera accepting bribe in Narada sting footage. Five of them-Sovan Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Subhendu Adhikari and Iqbal Ahmed won their seats. Former minister Madan Mitra was the only Narada-stung TMC leader who was defeated.

(THIS STORY ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN THE ASIAN AGE AS MAY THE CASE BE)