International Desk – The ruling Trinomul Congress of Mamata Banerjee is poised to reassume office in Indian State of West Bengal after her party made a lead in the election race.
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In fact, such is the popularity of Didi in West Bengal today that when voters were asked who they thought had been the best Chief Minister till date, it was she who emerged on top (37%).
“People of Bengal have rejected attempts by the Opposition to mislead them”.
In 2011, altogether 174 women had contested out of a total of 1,792 contestants, while 2016 saw as many as 198 women battle it out among 1,961 candidates.
Moments later a listless CPI(M) politburo member Salim said, “Given our organizational make-up we managed to transfer most of our votes to the Congress but unfortunately same thing did not happen from the other side”.
Thursday’s poll outcome reflected that there was no impact of either the Sharada-Narada scams or the Vivekananda flyover collapse just on the eve of the polls. In 2014 Lok Sabha polls Left Front had received 29 percent votes which was reduced to all time low of 24 percent in 2016. The pollsters this time had predicted that the BJP’s vote percentage would dip, with some saying it could even slump below five percent.
Only the BJP was all smiles, winning three seats and making its presence felt across several regions of West Bengal. It’s clear now that the Left is a spent force; the dark days of Left Front rule are not coming back. After all, the only two state governments the party runs in the country have Congress as the opposition. “The aspiration is to have an alternative non-communal platform and Mamata Banerjee is the ideal choice to lead”, says Trinamool leader Firhad Hakim. “Although most of her party members have been proved corrupt, her clean image has been the party’s biggest strength”, said Ghosh on the Trinamool bagging 211 of the 294 seats.
The CPI-M leader also accused the Trinamool of unleashing “terror and intimidation” on his party cadres even during the election.
There was a fall in LF major CPI-M’s vote share too. “We won Kerala battle, we lost West Bengal battle”, he said. True to their calculations, the BJP’s vote share came down from 17% to 10%, but the swing entirely favoured the Trinamool.
The dismal scenario for the Left-Congress alliance was reflected in its unofficial chief ministerial candidate, CPI-M state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra falling behind by over 4,000 votes against his Trinamool Congress opponent. The left-leaning alliance was ahead in another 32 constituencies. The Trinamool virtually knocked out the opposition in the Junglemahal area – comprising forested stretches of mainly three western districts West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura. Mamata’s slogan for development and various schemes for the common people caught the imagination of the voters.
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The Trinamul sources said Mamata was confident that the Left-Congress hand-holding would not continue for long as most central leaders of the CPM were unhappy with the decision and would corner the advocates of the alliance.
