Chief minister Mamata Banerjee held an online meeting with 290 party candidates on Friday afternoon, assuring them that the Trinamul Congress would win the Assembly elections with no less than two-thirds majority, her outreach coming a day after exit polls indicated that her rerturn to Nabanna would by no means be a cakewalk.
“Didi said she expected good performance in North Bengal and Jungle Mahal. She sounded confident of a win with two-third majority,” said a candidate from a south Bengal district.
The Bengal Assembly has 294 seats. Elections were held in 292 seats. Congress's Shamserganj candidate Rezaul Haque and RSP's Jangipur nominee Pradip Kumar died of Covid. Voting in these two constituencies will now be held on May 16. Trinamul's Khardah candidate Kajal Sinha succumbed to Covid after voting was over in the constituency. A fourth candidate, Sameer Ghosh, who was contesting as an Independent from Baishnabnagar, died earlier this week. Voting in the seat was held on Thursday.
Counting votes for Bengal, along with Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, will be held on May 2.
Despite exit poll projections to the contrary, Mamata said that the BJP would not win more than 70-80 seats. “She told us not to worry, the BJP won’t cross 70-80. We are coming to power,” the candidate said.
Incidentally, North Bengal and Jungle Mahal are the two areas which had turned into the BJP’s mainstay in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Out of the 54 Assembly seats in the eight districts of North Bengal, the BJP led in 37. Likewise in Jungle Mahal and its surrounding areas in south Bengal, the BJP was ahead in 30 of the 40 Assembly seats.
Most exit polls have indicated that the finish this time could be tighter than what leaders of the two primary contenders, the Trinamul Congress and the BJP, would have us believe. Mamata, as well as Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, have all claimed that they will come to power with more than 200 seats. While exit polls are known to go terribly wrong, most have indicated that both the Trinamul and the BJP will be well below 200.
None of he polls has, however, indicated a hung Assembly.
According to Trinamul sources, at Friday's meeting, Mamata warned her party candidates that the BJP would try to create confusion at the counting centres.
“Didi said, the BJP controls the media, so only leads of BJP will get prominence, but the candidates should not lose hope or worry. She instructed all of us to stay at the counting centre till the last vote was counted and tallied with the VVPAT,” said a candidate.
The chief minister made it clear to all party nominees that the electoral battle would not be over till the last vote was counted and all candidates would have to remain alert throughout the day.