TMC makes major gains in Bengal, punctures BJP

Not only did Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee hold her ground in West Bengal, but her party also made major gains, thereby puncturing the BJP’s plan to breach the TMC’s fortress once again.

Till 8 pm Tuesday, the TMC had won 14 Lok Sabha seats and was leading in another 15 seats, a total of 29. Five years ago, the TMC had won 22 seats as the BJP had performed impressively, winning 18 seats.

This time though it was a part of the Opposition INDIA bloc, the TMC fought alone in all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Despite being besieged by a series of corruption cases since the 2021 Assembly polls, the TMC fought the election on welfare schemes of the state government like Lakshmir Bhandar, the direct transfer benefit scheme for women, and ran the “BJP is anti-Bengali” campaign.

The TMC vote share also jumped from 43.3 percent in 2019 to 46.01 per cent this time. Simultaneously, the BJP’s vote shrunk by 2.5 percentage points — from 40.70 per cent to 38.3 per cent.

For the Congress and the CPI(M)-led Left Front, which had a seat-sharing agreement, unlike the last Lok Sabha polls, their overall vote share remained almost the same – 12 per cent in 2019 and 11 per cent now. While the Congress showed lead in only one seat – Maldah Dakshin, down from two in 2019; the Left failed to open the account like in the previous election.

However, in at least 12 Lok Sabha constituencies, the vote share of the Congress and CPI(M) ranged from 17 per cent to above 20 per cent, which observers believe was snipped from the BJP share, thereby reducing the latter’s seats.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, TMC had secured 48.02 per cent of votes, while the BJP and Left-Congress got 38.15 per cent and 7.66 per cent of votes,