KOLKATA: All factors were apparently against Mamata Banerjee -- the voting stretched across all seven phases from April 19 to June 1, her rivals, both Right and Left, exerting enormous weight on her Trinamool Congress.
And then amid an unbearable heat, around 78% of the electors, a turnout that left many northern states behind, came out to vote. The result shocked her adversaries: the Trinamool bagged 29 seats out of 42; the BJP stood distant second with 12 seats followed by Congress with a solitary number.
Her principal opponent BJP sent in their best – the “dadas” of the Bengal variety – the judge- judge-turned-politician Abhijit Gangopadhyay (Tamluk), Dr Jayanta Roy (Jalpaiguri) Dilip Ghosh (Bardhman-Durgapur) Sukanta Majumder (Balurghat). Didi came out tops at the end of the day.
So much so that the CM’s nephew and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee created a record of getting the biggest poll margin of 7 lakh votes from Diamond Harbour.
Mamata has asked Abhishek to join the INDIA alliance meeting tomorrow. As the news of TMC victory poured in, hundreds of TMC supporters came out shouting ‘joi Mamata joi,’ smearing each other with green abir. The biggest upset today was Congress’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury a five-term MP who lost to a non-political person and a cricketer Yusuf Pathan of TMC from Behrampore seat in Murshidabad district.
The BJP’s tally came down to 12 from its earlier tally of 18. While the party’s candidate from Malda South, Shahnawaz Ali Raihan, polled third, the Congress Isha Khan Chowdhury managed to secure Ghani Khan Chowdhury’s legacy from the seat. Isha will take over the seat from his father, Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury.
In Malda North, like the last time around, a split of votes between the Congress and the TMC handed a win to incumbent BJP MP Khagen Murmu.In her presser, Mamata complained that BJP observers were not giving the mandatory certificates of victory to the party.
“The BJP and Modi ji have so much arrogance. He threatened everyone, all leaders, MPs,
MLAs and councillors in our state. He even sent money to influence the voters.” Taking a swipe at PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, she said: “You can control ECI, CBI, but INDIA bloc will take you down.”
Although BJP won 18 seats five years ago, its victory march was confined to regions having either a high number of tribal voters or a sizable population of Hindu Dalits, many of whom came from Bangladesh as refugees.