Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee will take oath as the chief minister of West Bengal for the second successive time on May 27 (Friday).
Advertisement
Ahead of the elections, it was thought that the Left-Congress alliance would pose a tough challenge to the ruling Trinamool Congress.
After storming back to power with a thumping majority, Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday thanked the people of the state for renewing their mandate. She can now be the person who revives Bengal’s economy and propels the state to the top of economic and human development rankings.
Large sections of the electorate of Bengal who were disillusioned with Mamata Banerjee and her misrule didn’t vote at all, or voted for Independents.
Ultimately, the scale of victory of the BJP and its allies, as was rightly predicted by BJP’s master strategist Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has to be credited with scripting his party’s spectacular victory, left the Congress shell-shocked.
The Left-Congress combine emerged victor in just 77 seats.
He, however, added that the vote share of CPI(M) has remained more or less the same in the state for the party as compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. According to Election Commission’s statistics, TMC this time got 44.9 per cent of the total votes polled in comparison to 39 per cent in 2011 and 39.03 per cent in 2014. Apart from TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, other prominent winners of the party included ministers Subrata Mukherjee, Amit Mitra, Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Moloy Ghatak and city mayor Sovan Chatterjee.
RSP Tripura state secretary Sudarshan Bhattacharjee yesterday held CPI(M) responsible for poll debacle and alleged that forging alliance with Congress was not discussed well among the Left constituents.
On the other hand, the Left-Congress alliance canvassed mainly on the corruption issue – in the aftermath of the Narada sting footage that showed a number of Trinamool leaders accepting wads of currency notes in exchange of doling out favours to a fictitious company.
Still, the Left-Congress alliance was fructified only after Assembly polls were announced. Several CPM leaders admitted that Congress workers in many places did not vote for the CPM.
“LDF has registered a big victory in Kerala because the people have endorsed a platform for a corruption-free government”.
Advertisement
The Left Front major CPI-M’s Bengali mouthpiece Ganashakti came up with a banner headline “Sarkar fer Trinamooleri” (Trinamool again forms government). She had in her rallies asked the voters “to vote for me considering that I am contesting from all the 294 seats”.
