The BJP was ahead in 90 Assembly segments as opposed to 192 for the Trinamul Congress and 12 for the Left and the Congress in Bengal in the 2024 general election.
In the 2021 Assembly polls, the BJP had bagged 77 of 294 seats.
Although this statistic can be used as a face-saver for the BJP as it means the party improved its performance, no one in the state unit of the BJP made such a claim.
“Five years ago, we got 18 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, which means there is a loss of six seats this time.... A comparison with the 2021 polls in terms of leads in Assembly segments is meaningless at this hour,” said a BJP insider.
The Assembly segment-wise votes of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls — which were finalised by the returning officers of the Parliamentary constituencies late on Tuesday night — don’t offer any positive news for the BJP. This is because the BJP’s votes declined by about 2 per cent compared to the 2019 results. There is a 0.58 per cent spike in the BJP’s vote share vis-a-vis the 2021 verdict.
“Traditionally, national parties like the BJP and the Congress tend to get around 2 to 3 per cent more votes in Lok Sabha polls compared to the Assembly elections. A marginal rise of 0.58 per cent is not worth to be talked about,” said the BJP insider.
In the backdrop of the dismal performance of the BJP in Bengal, the leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, and state party president Sukanta Majumdar left for New Delhi on Thursday. They are scheduled to meet Union home minister Amit Shah and the BJP’s national president J.P. Nadda on Friday.
“The central BJP leadership has asked all newly elected MPs to attend the meeting on June 7. The leader of the Opposition has also been invited. The top leadership may give a future roadmap for the party in the state,” said Majumdar.
Multiple sources in the BJP said in the organisational report sent to Delhi before the election, the state leadership had projected a “rosy picture” in terms of the number of seats.
“Based on the report, the party developed its campaign plan, but the results show
that the state leadership was far removed from reality. They failed to understand
the people’s sentiments. We are expecting some changes,” said a senior BJP leader.
“Right now, the central leaders are busy handling larger issues like government formation and the Prime Minister’s swearing-in. So, there is no scope for any
detailed analysis right now, but it will be taken up very soon and Assembly segment-wise results will be discussed threadbare,” added the source.
The break-up revealed that the BJP was ahead in 32 Assembly segments of eight Lok Sabha constituencies in north Bengal. In south Bengal, the party managed leads in 58 Assembly segments, a majority of which came from the Matua-dominated Bongaon and Ranaghat Lok Sabha seats and in Tamluk and Kanthi in East Midnapore, the home turf of Suvendu Adhikari.
The BJP, however, fared poorly in large parts of south Bengal, which exposed its organisational weakness, said a source.
“The party could not develop a proper organisation in most south Bengal districts. Instead, it depended on the Modi wave to win seats in these areas. Unfortunately, despite 20 public meetings and a road show in Calcutta, Modiji failed to push the
party ahead in the areas where the BJP was organisationally weak,” said a senior BJP leader in Bengal.