Kolkata: Despite the Central leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah visiting West Bengal every alternative day and with huge rallies and roadshows amidst chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ ‘Didi-o-Didi’, the BJP failed to bloom its lotus in the state.
Ab ki bar 200 par (this time we will cross 200 seats) – Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) campaign mantra is now applicable more on Trinamool Congress (TMC), as the results of the assembly elections in West Bengal turned the state ‘green’ instead of ‘saffron’.
The high-voltage Assembly poll fight between the BJP and the TMC saw a landslide win of Mamata Banerjee's party for the straight third time in the state.
So, what led to the stupendous success of the TMC?
Though the BJP is claiming that from their negligible presence in West Bengal they have emerged as the main opposition wiping off the Left Front and the Congress completely, the analysts and the common voters said that mainly few factors like continuous price hike of petroleum products, pandemic and absence of probable Chief Minister face of the saffron camp led to their doom.
The main voters that BJP thought of winning are the Hindu voters that is 70 per cent in West Bengal. But according to poll analysts, even the Hindus got carried away by the last moment ‘Chandi Path’ and ‘Hindu matras’ chanted by the TMC supremo in the poll campaigns.
Some even said that the launch of TMC health insurance card Swasthya Sathi, which promised health benefits for up to Rs 5 lakh and treatment at government and private hospitals, ahead of the polls was a turning point to the TMC fold.
Apart from the health card, the Chief Minister also promised another scheme, ‘duare ration’ which meant free ration at people’s doorstep if voted to power for the third time.
“If Duare Sarkar and Ration were planned moves, an unplanned but very significant factor which went in favour of the TMC, was the steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Bengal. The TMC chief, while campaigning also held meetings with the state officials monitored the pandemic situation. The mismanagement on the part of the central government also contributed to the negative image of the saffron party,” believes poll analyst Biswanath Chakraborty.
The poll analysts also feel that the TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee also got the support of the women voters. With her one leg in plaster, Mamata also said at her public meetings that she will fight the election on the strength of two legs of her sisters. The association worked, it seems.
Mamata’s call to the Muslims in the state to be united and vote for her to consolidate her position also seemed to have gone in her favour. Malda and Murshidabad, traditional Congress bastions with a considerable minority population, voted en masse for the TMC.
