Mamata pulls off a landslide win for TMC in Bengal for third term

KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee fended off a spirited challenge by a resurgent BJP in West Bengal with a landslide victory for her Trinamool Congress on Sunday for a third consecutive term.
The mercurial Banerjee, however, lost the Nandigram seat in a close fight with BJP candidate and her former lieutenant Suvendu Adhikari. According to the Election Commission of India(ECI) website updated at 11.15 pm, Adhikari won by a margin of 1,956 votes to retain the prestigious seat. The TMC has demanded a recount.

The TMC's spectacular win in West Bengal in many ways is seen as a victory of the non-saffron parties who hope to capitalise on the triumph in the eastern state, Tamil Nadu and Kerala to revive attempts to form a Federal front to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The victories come barely a month after Banerjee wrote to Opposition leaders urging them to unite against the BJP.

The poll outcome for the BJP comes against the backdrop of the COVID-19 crisis which has posed a massive challenge to the Centre and also the protests by farmers at Delhi borders to roll back the three contentious farm laws.

For the Congress, the main opposition party in the Lok Sabha, the electoral fortunes took another dip as it failed to make a mark in the current round of asembly polls, the only minor consolation being the victory of its ally DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu.

The cynosure of the elections, held over March and April as the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic picked up pace to finally ravage large parts of the country, was the high-stakes, acrimonious TMC-BJP contest in West Bengal.

Belying all expectations, the TMC scored a spectacular victory overcoming the might of the BJP after a bitter campaign that had turned into a virtual duel between Chief Minister Banerjee and Prime Minister Modi.

''It is the victory of the people of Bengal, the victory of democracy. Bengal has saved India today. This landslide victory came after fighting against several odds -- the Centre, its machinery, its agencies.

''This victory has saved the humanity,'' Banerjee said, addressing the press as she stood on her feet for the first time in nearly two months.

The campaigning was marked by images of Banerjee in a wheelchair with a thick cast on her leg after she was injured during electioneering.

The TMC was poised to get a two-third majority bagging 189 seats and ahead in 25 in the 292-member house while the BJP won 62 seats and was leading in 14. BJP had just three seats in the outgoing house.

“I respect the verdict of people of Nandigram, but have got landslide victory in Bengal,” Banerjee said. The TMC supremo added that she would move court against the 'mischief' in Nandigram.

The BJP worked hard to build inroads in West Bengal and fielded its top leaders, including Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, but power in the state proved to be elusive.

The Left parties, which once called the state their bastion, and the Congress were demolished and not even a factor in the eight-phase election.

In terms of vote share, the TMC had 48.1 per cent of the votes against the BJP’s 37.8 per cent.