The coming together of warring factions of the Trinamul Congress over the betrayal of Suvendu Adhikari and Mamata Banerjee’s decision to contest from Nandigram helped the party win majority of the seats in East Midnapore and West Midnapore, considered to be the strongholds of the Adhikaris.

Trinamul won 23 out of 31 Assembly segments in East and West Midnapores. The BJP could win just eight.

This gave a blow to the BJP as the party had expected to win a majority of the 35 seats in East and West Midnapores after Suvendu Adhikari had joined the saffron camp. Even Suvendu had claimed he and state BJP president Dilip Ghosh, who hails from West Midnapore, would uproot Trinamul from undivided Midnapore.

Trinamul supporters celebrate in Burdwan on Sunday. Munshi Muklesur Rahaman

“But Trinamul started the work to stitch together the party after Suvendu left. Senior leaders like Subrata Bakshi repeatedly visited the districts to ensure Trinamul workers didn’t get demoralised. As senior leaders held a series of meetings with the grassroots level workers, the party got united,” said a Trinamul insider.

Moreover, once Suvendu left Trinamul, many active workers who remained inactive because of his highhandedness, actively joined the party’s activities. This helped Trinamul both in East Midnapore and West Midnapore, said sources.

Besides, Trinamul had started to ignite people’s grievance against Suvendu very cleverly. “People had grievances against Suvendu as his close aides carried out anti-people activities in the area for years. The surge of the BJP in East and West Midnapores in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls was because of people’s anger against Suvendu. Trinamul tried to use the situation and was successful in drawing back hundreds of supporters who had worked for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls,” said a party insider.

Mamata’s decision to |contest the polls from Nandigram also helped Trinamul strengthen its support base in East and West Midnapore.

“After Suvendu left the party, there was a void of |leadership. But once the chief minister announced fight from Nandigram, the party successfully got united |and fought against Suvendu hard. It now appears it was a battle against Suvendu rather than the BJP,” said a party source.

The BJP, however, refused to accept that Suvendu was the prime reason behind the party’s poor show in East and West Midnapores.

“Party’s result is not up to the mark across the state. So, it is not right to single out East and West Midnapores. Our party leadership would assess the reasons behind the party’s poor show and then only anything can be said on the issue,” said Nabarun Nayek, a BJP leader in East Midnapore.