Kolkata: The Lok Sabha elections results in Bengal has left all exit poll pundits stunned with Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamul Congress delivering its second best electoral performance since 2014. Mamata’s party which had been shown a thumbs down by poll pundits has managed to secure 29 seats, while BJP managed to win only 12 seats in Bengal.
The state which went to poll in seven phases sent out a big message to the country – ‘What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow’. The vote consolidation that the state witnessed perhaps was a resounding assurance to team INDIA that the public of Bengal is not with those indulging in politics of hate.
“The result is not surprising to me or anyone from Bengal. The groundwork of those who did the exit polls was weak. I had told eNewsroom earlier that TMC would bag 27-28 seats and that has happened,” said Professor Mohammad Reyaz of Aliah University.
Explaining why the dynamics of Bengal’s voting pattern was media communication academic Ujjwal K Chowdhury. “Bengal has voted against the politics of hate and Modi. It was not the state elections so there was no anti-Mamata voting. Also, the state has witnessed Muslim consolidation of vote. The Left-leaning as-well-as Congress-leaning Muslim voters have chosen to vote for the party that can defeat Modi,” analysed Chowdhury
Echoing the same Ujjaini Halim said, “Bengal voted for the parliament and against polarisation politics. That’s perhaps the reason other issues like state level corruption related to appointment of teachers etc didn’t impact much. The voting pattern is a replica of 2021. This was more of a voting against BJP.”
Reyaz maintained that the Exit polls in general had a bias towards BJP.
“Even Pradeep Gupta claimed that there would be a close contest. But look at the winning or lead margins – they are wide. So, where is the close contest in Bengal?” he asked.
He maintained that Mamata’s popularity and TMC cadres played a key role in the party’s victory in Bengal. “TMC’s win has established the fact that social media presence won’t help. BJP’s two sitting MPs have lost, all credit to the good campaigning by TMC. Central-federal tussle was efficiently made into an issue by Abhishek Baneerjee. Also, IPAC’s -root level management has been good,” said Reyaz.
The performance of the Left INC makes one believe that they have again failed to convince voters that they could ‘save’ Bengal. However, undeniably the Left vote percentage has increased marginally which can be considered as a positive sign for Bengal’s state politics.
“One can’t deny the fact that Mamata has again emerged as a very popular mass leader, her various schemes for women/girls contributed to this outcome,” stressed Halim.
However, Chowdhury maintained that it was too early to compare Didi with CPIM’s Jyoti Basu. “To be equated with Basu, she needs to win another state election, but we can’t deny the fact that she has the women voters in favour,” he said.
