The outcome of Bengal’s panchayat election is not a story of upheavals. The ruling Trinamul Congress, unsurprisingly, has bagged the lion’s share of zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats that make up the state’s three-tier panchayat system. Yet, it is not as if the script was shorn of surprises. For instance, there are pockets that managed to hold out against the green wave. The Bharatiya Janata Party put up a fight in Nandigram, the fief of Suvendu Adhikari. The Left and the Congress — the two fought the polls as alliance partners — tasted some success in Murshidabad. In Bhangar, the Indian Secular Front turned the tables on one of the TMC’s strongmen. But these were minor hiccups for the ruling party in the context of the big picture. In fact, the TMC, too, made inroads into fresh turfs. The party swept the four districts that constitute Jungle Mahal. This is significant given that the BJP had performed well in this stretch in the Lok Sabha polls of 2019. The BJP floundered in its traditional strongholds, including the constituencies dominated by the Matuas. This must be heartening for Mamata Banerjee’s party. North Bengal’s tea belt embraced the TMC via its ally, the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha. Ms Banerjee’s support among minorities, with a few exceptions, seems intact.

Reading the political tea leaves is an endeavour fraught with risk. Yet, some broad patterns can be deduced on the basis of the panchayat polls. The biggest message seems to be that rural Bengal continues to support the TMC wholeheartedly. The TMC’s welfare programmes may have played a crucial role in this success. Interestingly, the allegations of corruption failed to dent the TMC’s appeal. This goes to show that the TMC’s opponents could not read the public mood correctly in a state where bread and butter issues tend to dominate other electoral themes. The Opposition may complain about the poll-related violence but it is also clear that the BJP, the Left and the Congress, their nominal, localised gains notwithstanding, continue to be hobbled by organisational weaknesses. This does not augur well for Bengal’s Opposition given that the Lok Sabha polls are not too far away. This panchayat election also saw the emergence of Abhishek Banerjee as a principal strategist for the TMC. The results should encourage the party to invest in a second line of leadership that can take over the mantle at some point in the future.