The BJP’s Bengal tally of 12, which is six less than the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, has put under the scanner the party’s choice of candidates.

The BJP has lost eight seats — Asansol, Bardhaman-Durgapur, Jhargram, Barrackpore, Medinipore, Cooch Behar, Hooghly and Bankura — but gained two seats in East Midnapore — Kanthi and Tamluk.

Although Arjun Singh had won from Barrackpore on a BJP ticket in 2019, he later switched to the Trinamool Congress. However, in 2024, an aggrieved Singh joined the BJP after Trinamool denied him a ticket from Barrackpore. On Tuesday, Singh was defeated from the North 24-Parganas seat as a BJP nominee by Trinamool’s Partha Bhowmik.

Other prominent BJP losers were Union minister of state for home Nisith Pramanik, former state BJP president Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Pal and S.S. Ahluwalia who all were defeated by Trinamool.

Ghosh was shifted from Medinipur, where he had won in 2019, to Bardhaman-Durgapur where the party’s victory margin was only 2,437 votes last time. Agnimitra Pal was sent to Medinipur in 2024 and lost to June Malia of Trinamool.

BJP insiders said the party had lost two seats because of the change in the nominees. “Dilipda had a strong base in Medinipur but was sent to a difficult constituency because one of our senior leaders (read Suvendu Adhikari) wanted it. As a result, we lost both Medinipur and Bardhaman-Durgapur,” said a BJP leader who didn’t want to be named.

The nomination of Singh in Barrackpore, who frequently changed parties, has drawn criticism from BJP leaders.

“Arjun Singh was never loyal to the BJP. He went to Trinamool after he won on a BJP ticket. The party nominated him at the insistence of the leader of the Opposition. It did not go down well with the people and we lost,” a senior leader said.

Adhikari, however, alleged that though a large section of the people had faith in the BJP, intimidation of voters by the ruling party and continuous threats to suspend social service schemes forced them to vote for Trinamool.

“In the 2024 general election, 39 per cent of the people showed faith in the BJP
but people were not even allowed to cast their votes at many places. They were forced to stay indoors. There was a continuous campaign that Trinamool would stop schemes like Lakshmir Bhandar if the party didn’t stay in power. People were scared,” Adhikari said at a press conference in Contai.

The BJP office in central Calcutta had a deserted look on Tuesday. In the
morning when early trends showed a close contest, the party had ordered for musical bands but as the day progressed, supporters and leaders started leaving the office. There were some leaders but none of them spoke to the media.

Assembly bypolls

The Trinamool Congress’s Reyat Hossain Sarkar defeated Anju Begum of the Congress by 15,617 votes in the bypoll to the Bhagabangola Assembly seat in Murshidabad district.

In the bypoll to the Baranagar Assembly segment, Sayantika Banerjee of Trinamool was ahead of the BJP’s Sajal Ghosh by a margin of 3,746 votes at the end of 12 rounds of counting.

Malpractice charge

Trinamool chairperson Mamata Banerjee as well as BJP state chief Sukanta Majumdar alleged malpractices in the counting by each other’s parties, underscoring alleged delays in the issuance of victory certificates to the winners.