Tuesday's general elections results found the proverbial Mamata magic tearing through the Modi blitzkrieg with the Trinamool Congress in Bengal literally handing down a humiliating defeat to the challenger BJP which on Tuesday slipped down to 11 seats from its 2019 tally of 18.
This, even as party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee recorded a victory with a margin of 7.74 lakh votes in Diamond Harbour constituency breaking the previous record of CPI(M) MP Anil Bose who had won from Arambag seat by a margin of 5.8 lakh votes.
The counting was still on in several seats and if the TMC managed to continue with its show until the final results.
It could mark its second-best performance since 2014 when it won 34 seats. Only the Left Front had won more than 35 seats in 2004.
Curiously, the Sandehskhali issue that drew national headlines for alleged land grab and sexual exploitation of women too would not impact the TMC's good fortune. The party not only won the Basirhat seat but also got a huge lead from Sandeshkhali Assembly seat.
Apart from TMC's landslide win the other most landmark event around Tuesday's election result was the surprising defeat of 5-time Behrampore Congress MP and party's former leader of Lok Sabha Adhir Chowdhury who lost out to the much talked about TMC ``intruder" and former India cricketer Yusuf Pathan. He was leading by more than 60,000 votes when reports last came in.
Other than Pathan among the who's who that won the polls is TMC's Mohua Moitra who trounced her nearest rival Amrita Roy of BJP from Krishnagar.
The TMC was on its way to win 30 seats whereas the BJP managed to win only 11. The Congress which had 2 seats in the previous Lok Sabha managed to win only Malda South seat losing Behrampore to the TMC.
Lok Sabha elections in Bengal were conducted in seven phases.
Among the notable faces that lost in BJP was former State president Dilip Ghosh who was allegedly forced to contest against his wishes from Durgapur whereas his home seat Midnapore was left to Agnimitra Paul who too lost the seat.
Among others who lost were BJP's SS Ahluwalia from Asansol, Arjun Singh from Barrackpore. CPI(M) stalwarts Md Salim and Sujan Chakrabarty too lost from Murshidabad and Dum Dum constituencies. While Salim was defeated by sitting TMC MP Abu Taher Khan Chakrabarty was defeated by veteran TMC leader Saugato Roy. BJP's leader and Union Minister Nisith Pramanik was trailing from Coochbehar when reports last came in.
Back in Kolkata, TMC's Sudip Bandopadhyay defeated BJP's Tapas Roy in Kolkata North seat whereas Mala Sinha defeated BJP's Debashri Chowdhury and CPI(M)'s Saira Shah Halim in Kolkata South.
Riding a combination of Muslim and Mahila support base the TMC had polled about 46 percent votes to BJP's 35 percent whereas the Left and the Congress together polled a little more than 13 percent votes about 9 percent less than what they jointly polled in 2023 panchayat elections.
Dwelling on the reason for her thumping success, the Bengal Chief Minister on Tuesday said that the people had voted for her party's policies in great numbers. "I bow my head to the people of Bengal … the mothers and sisters and the general people have voted the TMC to this place," she said.
When asked as to whether her populist schemes like Lakshmir Bhandar --- a Rs 1,000 monthly grant for women --- and Kanyashree etc led her party to success she said, "besides the people-friendly policies the Centre's arrogance … like their stopping of State funds also infuriated the people which is why they chose to back us … we were not arrogant … but BJP was … so we won."
Referring to the burning issues like corruption --- that saw several of her ministerial colleagues going to jail --- and Sandeshkhali, Mamata said, "the BJP tried to malign the Government and the party but has failed … the people have given them a lesson … they maligned us calling us corrupt but I won't spare them and bring libel suits against them."
