The West Bengal election has concluded and its results are here. The city of Kolkata has reaffirmed its faith in the Trinamool congress led by Mamata Banerjee, whose call of “Khela hobe” has taken the state and to some extent the nation by storm. People from across the country had their eyes fixed upon the West Bengal assembly elections. It was because it was a major election, where BJP was hoping to dash one of the last two bastions* of opposition & had left no stone unturned in unseating TMC from power. (* Other is Kerala)
In the nail-biting election, Mamata Banerjee has won the mandate, but has lost the seat of Nandigram by 1956 votes. But, still she can easily become the CM. For this, she just has to become a member of the legislative assembly within six months. It can be done by contesting bypolls to any seat left vacant or where polls could not be held for some reason.
Article 164 of Indian constitution deals with the provisions relating to the post of Chief Minister, & under this section the specific section 4, ie Article 164(4) states that an unelected member can assume the office as CM but he or she has to either win a bypoll or get elected to the Legislative assembly within six months to retain the position.
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Not only the city of Kolkata, but also the entire state stood strong with Mamata Banerjee, famously known as Didi in this electoral battle. The TMC recorded a huge victory in Kolkata by sweeping all of the 16 seats in the fray. The seat of Jadavpur which was won over from the Left front added as a cherry on the top of the electoral cake for TMC. These will bolster the confidence of the party workers in the city, as the party heads towards the civic polls, which has been due for some time now. In the seats of Ballygunge, Kasba and Kolkata port, the leads of TMC candidates are impressive. Subrata Mukherjee, from Ballygunge polled 85% of all the votes. TMC candidate in Entally Swarnakamal Saha polled 87% of all votes.
The spell of victory for TMC has spread over the suburban regions around Kolkata, including over the hindi-speaking population, which was the target support base for BJP. Through the use of social media, political spin doctors of BJP had tried to woo these voters using the traditional and predictable card of religion. But, this group of people in the suburban regions of Kolkata has turned the game over its head. For example the Hindi speaking voters residing in Jagaddal, Noapara, Bijpur, Naihati, & Khardah voted for TMC candidates. Candidate of Trinamool, Partha Bhowmick, who won from Naihati guessed, “People seemed to have rejected the turncoats in this poll.” Hindi-speaking voters in regions of Hooghly district like Chandannagar, Saptagram, Serampore, Champdani have also voted in huge numbers against the turncoats who jumped boat to BJP. In Barrackpore, BJP ended the contest empty handed by placing its candidate Arjun Singh, who was a TMC turncoat.
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Anti-Incumbency against the seating legislators acted against the turncoats who shifted to BJP, whether it was Prabir Ghoshal from Uttarpara, Dilip Singh from Champdani or Rabidranath Bhattacharya from Singur. At Chinsurah, Locket chatterjee, who had won the 2019 general election, suffered a humiliating defeat in this assembly poll after boat jumping into BJP. Apart from anger against the turncoats, who were seen as opportunists, there was also resentment against remarks made by Modi towards Mamata, which were perceived as derogatory and misogynistic. There was also the revulsion of women-folk against the type of politico-societal structures that BJP leaders like Adityanath were vocally intending to bring into West Bengal, like Anti-romeo squad.
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As soon as the results showed a definite victory for TMC, post-poll violence grappled the state, in regions like Arambagh, Nandigram, Natabari, Beleghata. Subsequently, the student organization affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), on Monday claimed that around 15-20 party workers of TMC attacked its office.
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In response to the violence, BJP has announced a nationwide dharna on Wednesday. The party posted on its official Twitter handle, “The BJP has announced a nationwide dharna on 5th May against the widespread violence unleashed by TMC workers post the election results in West Bengal. This protest will be held following all Covid protocols across all organizational mandals of the BJP.”
