Results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections have shattered West Bengal’s wish to outperform its record in 2019.
However, as the lion’s share of votes have been counted till 8:30 pm on Tuesday, TMC has won 12 seats and is leading at 17 seats with a total of 29 seats, while BJP’s lead came down to 12.
PM Narendra Modi held more than 40 roadshows and rallies across the state alongside various ministers, lawmakers, and party officials prior to and during the Lok Sabha elections.
To be precise, Modi held meetings or roadshows in practically every Bengali seat that the BJP was vying for.
Moreover, BJP leadership has expected Bengal to lavishly contribute to the “400 paar,” or “beyond 400 seats” cry, and the exaggerated accounts of exit polls backed the aspiration.
Prashant Kishore, the hyped political strategist, has also predicted BJP’s rise over Trinamool Congress in Bengal.
But on the contrary, the reality served nothing but huge disappointment to these projections.
Three Union ministers fielded by BJP, including junior youth affairs and sports minister Nishith Pramanik (contesting from Coochbehar), junior education minister Subhash Sarkar (from Bankura) and junior women and child development minister Debashree Chaudhuri (from South Kolkata), have either lost or are lagging behind.
In the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency, Dilip Ghosh, a BJP firebrand infamous for his hate speeches and accredited with being the playmaker of the party’s state unit, lost by 137,981 votes.
Apart from BJP, neither Congress nor the left have been able to do well in the ongoing elections.
Notably, Left candidates at some places have pulled votes from BJP – which helped TMC increase its lead.
Adding a final touch to the stylish victory of TMC, Mahua Moitra who had been expelled from the Lok Sabha last term, won Krishnanagar seat with a greater margin than previous elections.
A quick look at TMC’s victory clearly shows how pivotal Mamata’s traditional Muslim voter base has been in the current leap. As many analysts have pointed out, women voters have also been central to TMC’s triumph.
