Bengal reposed faith in its “daughter” and paved the way for a resounding victory for the Trinamul Congress, but Mamata Banerjee narrowly lost at Nandigram after the result of the seat was held up for a while under a cloud of claims and counterclaims, prompting the chief minister to say she would move court.

At 7.20pm, according to the Election Commission website, Trinamul had won or was leading in 216 seats, while the BJP had won or was leading in 75 seats in the elections held for 292 of the 294 Assembly seats of Bengal.

Independents were leading in two seats.

“My target was 221 seats. I had said we will score double century. Bengal, its people and women have won. Bengal has saved the entire country. This is a landslide victory fighting against all odds, central government, all agencies, election commission,” said Mamata.

“The slogans Khela Hobe and Joy Bangla worked. The game happened and we won,” she said.

A supporter celebrates TMC's win on Sunday in Calcutta. PTI

In Nandigram, late on Sunday evening, poll officials said the Mamata’s rival, Suvendu Adhikary of the BJP, won the seat by 1,736 votes. While Suvendu polled 1,09,673 votes, Mamata had got 1,07,937 votes. Mamata had been trailing for most part of the day. At the end of the 16th round of counting, Adhikari, was ahead by just six votes.

Mamata chose not to up the ante. “Whatever verdict the Nandigram people have given, I accept,” she told the media at her Kalighat residence. But she spoke of foul play. “In Nandigram, they looted votes. They stopped counting, they announced one result and then they announced something else. There is some foul play here. I will move court,” she said.

Asked about her swearing-in, Mamata indicated her priority was to tackle the pandemic. “Our first priority is Covid. We won’t have a largescale oath-taking ceremony,” she said, adding that as of now, there would be no victory procession anywhere by Trinamul party members.

Mamata requested the Centre to provide free vaccines to the country. “Otherwise, I will start satyagraha,” she said.

‘Game On’ worked

The outcome of the bitterly fought Assembly elections, which saw the BJP come at her with all guns blazing, resonates with the Trinamul Congress campaign that focussed on Mamata as “Banglar meye (daughter of Bengal)” and “Didi" (elder sister)”.

In the run-up to the polls, Mamata came up with the slogan of “Khela Hobe (Game On)”. At the end of the day on Sunday, she had convincingly outplayed the BJP in its own game. The BJP’s gambit of fielding Trinamul candidates like Adhikari, Rajib Banerjee, Rabindranath Bhattacharya and others did not pay the dividends it had hoped for.

Mamata went into the election fighting heavy anti-incumbency. While the Narada and Saradha scams had rocked her first term as chief minister, corruption during distribution of relief after last year’s cyclone Amphan and in teacher’s recruitments were all staring at her.

The Congress and Left parties had hit the streets against the Trinamul, focussing on these issues as it had done several times in the past. These issues figured prominently in the BJP’s campaign too. At the end of the day, these factors did not seem to be in play as the Trinamul romped home with 48.3 per cent of the total vote share.

This vote, while rejecting blatant communalism, patriarchy, moral, cultural and culinary policing of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar at large, also seemed to endorse the dole politics which Mamata has practiced in 10 years of her tenure as chief minister.

Mamata Banerjee on Sunday. PTI

Vote share

The BJP’s vote share is close to 38 per cent -- 10 per cent less than the Trinamul’s -- and with the curtains falling on the Left and secular parties in Bengal, it remains as the principal Opposition party in the state.

The Congress and the CPM, which went into the election as an alliance, failed to win even a single seat, while their partner, the Indian Secular Front, was leading in one.

Ten years after it was ousted out of power, the CPM now has just about 4.56 per cent of the vote share, while Congress has been reduced to 2.86 per cent. The last two remaining Congress bastions, Malda and Murshidabad, have now crumbled. Even in Berhampore, a stronghold of the Congress for decades, the party lost to the BJP.

Since becoming chief minister a decade ago, 2021 was Mamata’s toughest political battle as the BJP appeared to be on the rise in Bengal on the strength of its performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Dismal performance

For the BJP though, the performance is dismal. Despite spending crores on a campaign that saw the entire party leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, flock to Bengal, it could not cross the double figure mark.

In 2021, the BJP has been pushed back further from the leads it enjoyed in 121 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

In the runup to the elections, the BJP had also succeeded in weaning away many sitting legislators from the Trinamul to bolster its campaign. But the move seems to have backfired with the likes of Rajib Banerjee, Vaishali Dalmia, Prabir Ghoshal, Sabyasachi Dutta trailing.

Congratulations!

A number of Opposition leaders have congratulated Didi on her spectacular win. Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav all sent out congratulatory tweets.

“Congratulations @MamataOfficial on your stupendous victory! Let us continue our work towards the welfare of people and tackling the Pandemic collectively,” tweeted Pawar.