Brushing aside anti-incumbency and a high-pitched Opposition campaign against corruption, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday led the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to a landslide victory, decimating the newly-cobbled left-Congress alliance.
The TMC won 211 seats, literally demolishing an unmatched left-Congress alliance which managed to win 76 seats. The Congress bagged 44 seats, while the left, which for the first time in the history of the State conceded even the position of the principal Opposition party, won 32.
The TMC which had won 185 seats in 2011 and managed 39 per cent vote share in the 2014 lok Sabha elections upped its vote percentage by six points. The left’s vote share came down from 30 per cent to about 26-plus per cent, while the Congress upped its vote share from little less than 10 per cent to 11.50 per cent.
Among important losers in the State was Opposition leader and CPI(M) State secretary Suryakanta Mishra who lost from Narayangarh.
The saffron party which fought on its own, won three seats of Kharagpur, Baishnabnagar and Madarihat improving upon its previous tally of one seat. State party president Dilip Ghosh won from Kharagpur, defeating his nearest rival and oldest and senior-most outgoing member of the Congress Party, 93-year-old Gyan Singh Sohan Pal.
The BJP, which in the 2011 Assembly elections had got four per cent vote share and 17 per cent votes in the 2014 lok Sabha polls, managed to retain about 10 per cent vote share.
Giving her reactions on the TMC’s overwhelming victory Mamata said, “The people of Bengal have given a befitting reply for spreading canards against us. The Opposition and a few media houses which have vested interests spread a disinformation campaign and indulged in character assassination but they have got the reply from the people.”
Mamata said the TMC would take oath on next Friday “which is an auspicious day for us from all angles.”
The Chief Minister who played down questions on her alleged prime ministerial ambitions said, “I am a small person who has worked at various levels in Centre and here. I am never afraid of any job assigned to me. I want to dedicate my life for the people but for now I am satisfied with the job I am doing and am willing to concentrate in the development of Bengal.”
On her stupendous win she said, “This is the victory of the people. With this our responsibility has increased and we will work accordingly by taking lessons from our mistakes.”
However the Opposition said the TMC’s victory was on account of its “populist policy of doles like Rs 2 a kg rice, free cycle project and stipend schemes like Kanyashree and Yuva Shree.”
The Chief Minister who won by a huge 25,000 votes defeating Congress’ Deepa Dasmunshi said she had no problem in extending issue-based support to the BJP. “We cannot join hands because of our ideologicaldifferences but there should not be any problem on backing its positive steps.”
Among the notable winners were Trinamool’s Partho Chatterjee, Amit Mitra, Sadhan Pandey, Shashi Panja, Rezzak Mollah, Udayan Guha (both left discards), Javed Khan, Maloy Ghatak, Rabiranjan Bhattacharya andRabindranath Bhattacharya.
Among the prominent winners from the left were Asok Bhattacharya, Anisur Rehman, Tanmoy Bhattacharya. Some leading faces who won from the Congress were Abdul Mannan, Shankar Malakar, Manas Bhunia and IshaKhan Chowdhury.
Six Trinamool Ministers lost in the polls. They are Upen Biswas, Sabitri, Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury, Chandrima Bhattacharya and Shyamapada Mukherjee.
Curiously, while former Minister and chit fund accused Madan Mitra who contested from jail lost from Panihati seat, corruption issues like Sharadha and Narada tended to have little impact on the polls insofar as most of those seen taking bribe in the video footage won. Prominent among them were Subroto Mukherjee, Bobby Hakim, Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee.
The Trinamool did exceptionally well in Howrah, Hooghly, South 24 Parganas, both 24 Parganas and East and West Midnapores where people suffered the most in the chit fund scandal proving that the Chief Minister still had managed to keep her “honest” image intact. She had in her rallies asked the voters “to vote for me considering that I am contesting from all the 294 seats.”
Apart from the humiliating loss for Bengal Marxists who were till a few years ago considered the mainstay of left movement in India the CPI(M) had already begun to face questions from the lesser allies like RSP, Forward Bloc and of course a parallel section in the party on its politically imprudent alliance with the Congress a core rightist party.
The discontent with the left came almost in tandem with the Chief Minister’s comment on the failed left-Congress camaraderie that, “The CPI(M) has committed its biggest political blunder by allying with the Congress. The CPI(M) will have to suffer for making this compromise with their ideology. There is a famous saying that once your character is lost everything is lost. I think they have lost their character.”
Moments later a listless CPI(M) politburo member Salim said, “Given our organizational make-up we managed to transfer most of our votes to the Congress but unfortunately same thing did not happen from the other side.”
However, his politburo colleague Suryakanto Mishra refused to pass the responsibility on the Congress saying, “The situation against which we had come together still prevails. We wanted to fight against
corruption, farmers’ death, unemployment, political violence and the issues still continue.”