The contest between the BJP and the Left-Congress combine to emerge as challenger-in-chief to the Trinamul Congress in rural Bengal appears to have a winner in the saffron camp, albeit as a distant second to the state’s ruling party.

While the Left managed to recover a bit of their lost ground, the BJP still managed to secure around 1,800 seats more (provisionally) than the Left-Congress alliance at the gram panchayat tier.

As of 7pm on Tuesday, provisional numbers gave the BJP a vote share of 22.69 per cent, the CPM 12.54 per cent and the Congress 5.57 per cent.

According to sources, the BJP was winning 7,083 gram panchayat seats, the Left 3,059 and the Congress, 2,229. A similar trend was beginning to emerge over the evening in the panchayat samiti tier as well.

The BJP managed to outdo the Left in every district except Murshidabad and East Burdwan. In Murshidabad, the CPM was likely to win at least 846 seats, compared to the BJP’s 579, while in East Burdwan the CPM was likely to secure 296 seats, againstthe BJP’s 157.

Both the BJP and the Left-Congress alliance had built their largely similar anti-Trinamul campaign on the foundation of corruption charges. But for the Left-Congress alliance, the rural polls were an opportunity to displace the BJP as the runner-up in Bengal. The BJP, on its part, was desperate to retain it.

The BJP was dealt with a series of body blows in local-level elections and bypolls since the 2021 Assembly elections, and was replaced from second spot in many cases by the Left-Congress alliance.

However, Tuesday’s rural poll results and trends established the BJP in the second place in Bengal for now.

“The people of Bengal set a binary in 2021 (Assembly polls). The fight (in Bengal) is between Trinamul and the BJP, which was established yet again (in the panchayat elections),” said the BJP state chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.

The CPM blamed Trinamul for alleged vitiation of the poll atmosphere and alleged preferential treatment to the BJP. A statement issued by the politburo congratulated its winners, adding that Trinamul’s attack on the Opposition was “concentrated against the Left, the Congress and other electoral allies, while showing kid-glove treatment to the BJP”.

CPM state secretary Md Salim said: “This was a Centre-state-sponsored election. The administration refused to hand over certificates to our winning candidates whereas the BJP candidates were given preferential treatment.”

Many in the party disagreed. Multiple CPM leaders, on the condition of anonymity, said the party spent more time in court than regrouping on the ground. They said the CPM leadership should have focused more on its organisation than mimicking the Bengal BJP’s staple of relying on the judiciary to “fix problems”.

“The BJP took legal recourse to contest Trinamul-sponsored poll malpractices. They did it better. Where did we fail? The leadership needs to explain it,” said a CPM source.