Mamata tsunami blows away alliance

Brushing aside the canards spread by the Opposition and a section of the media along with vernacular television channels, Mamata Banerjee brought back the biggest ever single party rule in West Bengal, having recorded a landslide victory on Thursday in the state Assembly polls. Winning 211 seats out of 294, the Trinamool Congress party set a new benchmark in the state’s electoral history. Forty years ago in the 1970s, Congress’ Siddhartha Shankar Ray was the last one to have a single party rule but with a fewer number of MLAs.

In another first for the state, a rightist government will have a leader of the Opposition from a rightist party. The Left Front and Congress have secured 32 and 44 seats respectively while BJP have got three seats and others bagged four seats.

Dedicating the win to the people of Bengal, Banerjee said it was “the success of Ma, Mati, Manus” and pledged to work for the poor and the needy, students and the youth of Bengal. “Our sole duty is to ensure sustainable growth of the state making it no 1 in India,” she said. The new government will be sworn in on May 27. From May 20-30, there will be state-wide celebration, Banerjee said. 

Congratulatory messages came in from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and superstar Amitabh Bachchan among others.

Trinamool Congress has garnered a 44.9 per cent vote-share, while the Left Front has bagged 26.1 per cent and the Congress 12.3 per cent. BJP received 10.2 per cent votes. Four of TMC ministers Manish Gupta, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury and Sabitri Mitra lost out to their rivals. 

The alliance between the Congress and Left Front came a cropper with CPI(M) getting 32 seats and Congress managing only 44. While, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that there was no alliance, WBPCC president Adhir Chowdhury said the people spurned the alliance and the results exposed the organisational weakness of both the Left parties and the Congress. Even Surya Kanta Misra, state secretary of CPIM tasted defeat.

The BJP has managed to get three seats with the state president Dilip Ghosh winning from Kharagpur Sadar. He defeated Gyan Singh Sohan Pal of Congress. 

The nonagenarian Congress leader was the transport minister in Siddhartha Shankar Roy’s Cabinet between 1972 and 1977. BJP secured second position in seven seats including Jorasanko where former president Rahul Sinha was defeated by TMC candidate Smita Bakshi. The BJP that got 17 per cent vote in 2014 Lok Sabha election managed to retain 10 per cent votes.

The canards spread by the Opposition and the sting operation by Narada news failed to create any impact in the polls both in the urban and rural areas. TMC has done well in Murshidabad and winning 4 seats thereby gaining three seats from 2011 election. But in Malda the party failed to open its account. In North Bengal, TMC has performed well.