BJP losing plot in West Bengal as its performance in successive elections goes down

Shubhadeep Choudhury 

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 24

Having emerged as a strong player in state politics, the BJP appears to be fast losing the plot in West Bengal with its performance in successive elections going down.

The new state committee of the BJP was announced by its state unit president Sukanta Majumdar a day after the BJP was trounced in the Kolkata civic polls by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and six months after the saffron camp secured only 77 of the state’s 294 Assembly seats against the TMC’s 213.

After the spectacular show in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, which saw the BJP tally in West Bengal shoot up to 18 from the two seats it had won in 2014, the saffron party has been on a steady decline in the eastern state.

While the BJP’s score rose to 77 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections from only three it had won in 2016, the tally fell far short of the majority. The results of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections announced on December 21 have thrown light on the BJP’s fast shrinking support base in the eastern metropolis.

While the TMC won a landslide victory having secured victory in 134 of the 144 wards going to the KMC polls, the CPI (M) led Left Front emerged as the second largest force in terms of vote share in the polls.

Ward-wise vote count of the 17 Assembly constituencies that fall in Kolkata municipal area showed the Left Front candidates emerging as runners-up in seven Assembly segments, Congress in four segments while the BJP securing the runners-up position in the remaining six segments.

In the Assembly elections held in March-April this year, BJP candidates were the immediate rivals of the victorious TMC candidates in all 17 Assembly constituencies.

In October, Assembly bypolls were held on four seats in West Bengal, including Dinhata and Santipur, constituencies that were won by the BJP candidates at the time of the general election. In both seats, the BJP nominees were trounced by the TMC candidates.