Even as news of a certain victory for incumbent Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee started to filter in, the unequivocal mandate of the people of West Bengal which has given her an unprecedented vote share of 47.8 per cent (till the time this copy had been filed) made one thing clear in this election: despite the hype, corruption remains a non-issue in West Bengal.
Advertisement
She said in the last elections, Trinamool had won 184 seats in alliance but this time they have a majority.
The BJP won three seats including the victory of the state party president Dilip Ghosh.
Founder and chairperson of the Trinamool Congress which she set up in 1998 after falling out with the Congress Party in West Bengal, Banerjee, fondly called “Didi” (sister) by her supporters, has been the nemesis of the ruling CPI (M)-led Left Front and has earned the reputation of being a tough street fighter.
The Trinamool wave appeared to be crushing all the opposition in the southern parts of the state while the Left-Congress challenge was most visible in northern Bengal. “The people have rejected the allegation”, she asserted. The people did not like the way the opposition has spread canards against me in this election.
She soon became a rallying point for the anti-Left Front forces which saw in her an uncompromising, incorruptible and credible fighter in comparison to various senior leaders of state Congress of nineties.
“We have ideological differences with the BJP but anything positive for the people, we will not be negative”, Ms. Banerjee said on the role of her party in the Rajya Sabha. CPI (M) bagged 18 seats and is ahead in eight.
Advertisement
Among the ministers who were leading were Mamata Banerjee (chief minister), Partha Chatterjee (education), Arup Biswas (sports, housing), Malay Ghatak (labour), Chandrima Bhattacharya (law), Subrata Mukherjee (panchayat, public health engineering), Firhad Hakim (urban development). The daily gave prominent space to party secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra’s comment “we accept the people’s verdict, but our fight in the interest of the people will continue”.
