BJP Takes Lead Over TMC : In the politics of West Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party has expanded its clan so much in the last 10 years that it is now ready to marginalize the Congress and the Left and fight the war directly with the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC). BJP leaders claim that new heights have been seen in the politics of Bengal in the last two decades. During this time, TMC, which came into existence in 1998, reduced the influence of the Left in the state and currently the BJP has squeezed the Left and Congress and is standing as a wall in front of TMC.
TMC has shocked the hopes of Congress and India Bloc by declaring candidates on 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. However, BJP has announced its candidates for only 20 seats. Whereas the Left has announced 16 seats and is trying to coordinate with the Congress. The Left Front has also expressed its displeasure over Congress’s failure in seat distribution.
After coming to power in 2011, TMC had won the maximum of 34 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. During this period, BJP had got 2 seats, Congress 4 and Left 2 seats. After this, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, TMC was reduced from 34 seats to 22. Whereas BJP’s control increased from 2 seats to 18 seats. In this election, the Left could not open its account, while the Congress came down to 2 from 4 seats.
Whereas in the assembly elections in the state, TMC has won 211 seats in the 2016 elections and 215 seats in 2021. Whereas BJP started its journey in elections with just 3 seats. Whereas in 2021 it has increased to 77 seats. This is the reason why the graphs of Congress and Left, which won 44 and 33 seats respectively in 2016, recorded a huge decline in 2021.
BJP says that now it is also visible at the grassroots level in the political arena. The BJP has significantly reduced the vote share and seat margin over the ruling TMC in the 2019 general and 2021 assembly elections. It is also noteworthy here that BJP had performed well in the Lok Sabha elections in the northern and eastern regions of Bengal, where the Left was once dominant.
Talking about Bengal’s Lok Sabha and Assembly vote share, TMC increased it by 3.9 percent between 2014 and 2019, but won 12 less seats than in 2014. Whereas during this period, BJP’s vote share increased by 23.6 percent. The vote share of Congress declined by 4 percent and the vote share of Left declined by 22.4 percent. BJP’s vote share in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections was 17 percent and by 2019 it increased to 40 percent. Talking about the Assembly, in 2016 BJP had secured 10.2 percent votes, which reached 38 percent in the 2021 elections.
