Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: History has been created in the West Bengal Assembly elections where the Bharatiya Janata Party secured overwhelming mandate and is set to form government for the first time.
Out of the 294 Assembly seats, the BJP won 206 seats to secure more than two-thirds majority in the House, ending the Trinamool Congress’s 15- year rule. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced repolling for the entire Falta Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district on May 21.
The TMC trailed far behind, managing to win 81 seats in the first election after Special Intensive Revision of electoral roll in the state. For the first time since 1972, West Bengal will be governed by a party that is also in power at the Centre. The Congress and Aam Janata Unnayan Party secured two seats each, while the CPI- M and All India Secular front clinched one seat each.
In percentage terms, the BJP’s vote share of the total votes polled stands at 46 per cent, followed by the Trinamool Congress at 41 per cent, the CPI(M)-led Left Front at 4 per cent, the Congress at 3 per cent, and others including the AISF and the AJUP at 6 per cent.
In 10 districts — Cooch Behar, East Midnapore, West Burdwan, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Jhargram, Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Bankura and Purulia — Trinamool Congress candidates failed to win a single Assembly constituency.
The Trinamool Congress, at the same time, was defeated in all tribaland Matua-dominated Assembly constituencies in the state.
A number of heavyweight members of the Mamata Banerjee-led Cabinet, including the Chief Minister herself, were defeated from their respective Assembly constituencies.
Among those defeated were Minister of State for Finance (Independent Charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya, Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Minister Dr Shashi Panja, Fire Services Minister Sujit Bose, Education Minister Bratya Basu, North Bengal Development Minister Udayan Guha, and Power Minister Aroop Biswas, among others.
Significantly, three journalist-turned politicians were elected as BJP candidates. They are Swapan Dasgupta from the Rashbehari constituency in south Kolkata, state BJP vice-president Jagannath Chattopadhyay from Suri in Birbhum district, and Santu Pan from Tarakeswar in Hooghly district.
Another significant victory for the BJP was from the Panihati Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district, where its candidate Swapna Debnath won. She is the mother of a junior doctor at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, who was the victim of a ghastly rape and murder within the hospital premises in August 2024.
