Fifteen of Bengal’s 23 districts handsomely rewarded Mamata Banerjee, helping her trounce the BJP. But what appeared to have ensured the decimation of the saffron challenge were the 165 seats which Trinamul is poised to win out of a possible 190 in 11 of the south Bengal districts.
The Trinamul Congress chief, whose third consecutive term as the chief minister was ensured on Sunday irrespective of the Nandigram outcome, rode what appeared to be a wave in her favour and against the alleged bohiragawto (outsider) in North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram, East Burdwan, Birbhum, Murshidabad and Calcutta.
Between them, these 11 districts had 190 seats (only 20 out of 22 in Murshidabad went to polls, owing to candidates in two seats succumbing to Covid-19) in the fray, in which Trinamul appeared all set to emerge with a strike rate of nearly 87 per cent.
“These 11 districts gave us around 77 per cent of the 215-odd seats we are likely to win at the end. Not even in our most optimistic estimates had we factored in such performances from many of these districts…. It was clearly a firm stand people took in favour of Didi (Mamata), to keep the BJP out,” said a senior Trinamul leader, unwilling to go on record as Mamata herself had spoken. In the Lok Sabha polls of 2019, Trinamul had a lead in 142 of those seats.
In the key 75-seat cluster of Calcutta, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas, Trinamul was poised to win 67. Across the river, in the Hooghly-Howrah cluster, Trinamul was leading in 30 of 34 seats.
Similarly, in the erstwhile undivided Midnapore’s 34-seat cluster of Jhargram, East Midnapore and West Midnapore, Mamata’s party appeared set to win 28. In East Burdwan, Trinamul was leading in 13 of 16 seats. Out of Birbhum’s 11, Trinamul was leading in 10.
Finally, in the crucial district of Murshidabad, out of the 20 seats that went to the polls, Trinamul was set to win 17. “What is extremely important to remember is the unlikelihood of some of these victories, given the situation, traditionally, or in 2019. There have been recoveries in North 24-Parganas, Hooghly, Calcutta, the undivided Midnapore cluster, and Birbhum…. Murshidabad was never our area of strength, but the people there blessed us with immense faith this time,” said the Trinamul leader.
Sources in the BJP, which went into introspection mode since the afternoon, said a number of factors were being zeroed in on for the party’s “unexpected” drubbing.
“Everything we threw at her turned out to be ineffective. The people badly misunderstood us,” admitted a state BJP functionary.
“The bohiragawto label did go against us. Polarisation did not work as most of Bengal’s Hindus clearly took a stand against us,” he added.
“Candidate selection was not up to the mark. The electorate punished turncoats…. Even some of the districts where we had major expectations from — such as Nadia, Hooghly, the two Midnapores, Jhargram, North 24-Parganas, Calcutta — badly disappointed us.”