The triumph of welfare schemes for women in Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly polls sweetened the Trinamool Congress’s 6-0 sweep in the bypolls in Bengal as the party claimed that its Lakshmir Bhandar scheme had become a game changer in the Indian political landscape.

With Ladki Bahin and Maiya Yojana shaping the outcomes in favour of the Mahayuti coalition in Maharashtra and JMM-Congress combine in Jharkhand, Mamata Banerjee’s spin doctors began quoting Gopal Krishna Gokhale — “What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow”.

The evening edition of Jago Bangla, the Trinamool mouthpiece, carried a report on the front page on how the BJP borrowed the idea of Lakshmir Bhandar — a direct benefit transfer scheme — to win the election in Maharashtra with its Ladki Bahin scheme.

“This victory is sweet for all of us,” Mamata replied to a congratulatory message from this newspaper after her party bagged all the six seats — Naihati, Haroa, Medinipur, Taldangra, Madarihat and Sitai — where bypolls were held on November 13.

The Bengal chief minister also did not want to take any credit for the party’s stellar show in the by-elections. “I am just a commoner, will continue as a commoner,” she said.

Though she gave an impression that another clean sweep in bypolls was business as usual for the party, the reality is different.

The last 106 days since the rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital had been undoubtedly the most difficult phase of Mamata’s political career, spanning over four decades. Large parts of the state, especially urban and semi-urban areas, witnessed citizens’ protests that began with the call for justice for the RG Kar victim before metamorphosing into a movement demanding the resignation of the chief minister.

Though a section of junior doctors led the demand and went on strike, the clamour for Mamata’s head got louder as the Left and the BJP used the opportunity to create an anti-Mamata mood.

Against this backdrop, the 6-0 scorecard, along with the high victory margins, is the best that the Trinamool could have expected from the bypolls.

Given the composition of the House, the outcome doesn’t make any difference other than taking the number of occupants of the treasury benches to 226.

The significance of the bypolls is political, said a source. “The RG Kar incident had put us on the back foot... The morale of the party workers went down in large parts of the state,” said the source close to Mamata.

“We cannot call it a victory over the RG Kar issue... We feel satisfied because the result sends out a message that a significant majority of people in these six seats feel that the government didn’t do anything wrong in its response to the heinous crime,” the source added.

Some other factors that triggered celebrations in the Trinamool camp were:

n Though two of the six constituencies, Naihati and Medinipur, were urban in nature, the party increased its vote percentage compared to 2021, which meant that the RG Kar incident didn’t cast a shadow on its poll performance

n The BJP candidates lost their deposits in two seats, while the candidates representing the Congress and the broader Left alliance lost their deposits in all six seats

n Unlike in Maharashtra, the party improved upon its performance in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year. In the six seats, the Trinamool bagged around 63 per cent of the polled votes followed by around 25 per cent by the BJP. Six months ago, the Trinamool got 45.76 per cent while the BJP got 38.73 per cent votes

The euphoria of the clean sweep triggered celebrations in all the six constituencies, especially in Madarihat, which the ruling party wrested from the BJP.

An insider, however, sounded a cautionary note. “The poll outcome will not drown the voices of protests over RG Kar... We have to handle the issue carefully,” said the source. “In places like Naihati and Haroa, some of our party functionaries rigged the poll process... We could wrest Madarihat because it was a bypoll. We are still organisationally weak in the area, not only in Madarihat but also in adjoining constituencies like Dhupguri, Falakata, Kalchini and Nagrakata.”