West Bengal has put its Indian identity before its Bengali one this Lok Sabha election. Since 1977, when it became an ‘Opposition-ruled’ state, with its state government perpetually opposed to the ruling party at the centre, Bengalis have consistently voted for the party in power in the state during general elections. The only aberrations were in 2009 and 2019. In 2009, Trinamool Congress got more seats than the ruling CPI(M) and its Left partners. In 2019, TMC came close to an upset with 22 seats versus BJP’s 18.
Dashing the BJP’s hopes that 2019 had set the stage for a new trend, in 2024, Bengalis have course-corrected back to Indian first status.
Alarmed at the red lines that the BJP crossed over the last 10 years—of hate, polarisation and threats to the Constitution—Bengalis of all shades put their bubbling anti-incumbency angst against the TMC state government on the back burner. They voted unreservedly for the party, which they saw as one of the firmest bulwarks against the BJP in the country. That sent Mamata Banerjee’s tally of Lok Sabha MPs soaring, from 22 to 29. Narendra Modi’s great expectation that the BJP’s best performance in the country would be in Bengal was shot full of holes. Instead of an upward leap, its tally of 18 plummeted to a dozen.
Voters in Bengal gave the BJP what it keeps threatening to unleash in this state—Yogi Adityanath’s bulldozer treatment.
Sure, the victory could be attributed to the TINA—there is no alternative—factor. No alternative to the TMC nor to the Opposition party in West Bengal. Voters who didn’t want to vote for TMC had no one else to vote for. The Left is left out. The young Turks the CPI(M) fielded with great optimism have mostly come third in the seats they contested. There is only one CPI(M) candidate who has come second—by over 1.5 lakh votes—and that is CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim in Murshidabad.
As for the Congress, five-term MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury may have made it back to Parliament for the sixth time if either Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigned even once in the state. Then the party may have held on to its 2019 level of two MPs.
But no, TMC and its INDIA partners—the CPI(M) and Congress—refused to have anything to do with each other. Instead, they did everything to undermine each other. Had they fought as one, BJP may have lost another six seats and gone down to just half a dozen.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar has a sharp tweet on that.
▪️Adhir Chaudhary & WB Left lost their own seats (got zero)
▪️ But see how they ensured BJP’s victory in 6 seats!
▪️@MamataOfficial was disappointed with national leadership of Congress & Left ▪️not a spoilsport !
@AITCofficial pic.twitter.com/zK7dLHXZJP
— Jawhar Sircar (@jawharsircar) June 6, 2024
The last bit is the best.
Mamata Banerjee orchestrated her victory with elan…but that should not come as a surprise.
Also read: 2024 election mandate in UP is more against Yogi than Modi
Mercurial to magic to master
2024 marks 40 years of the Mamata brand of politics. In 1984, she debuted in Parliament, defeating CPI(M) star candidate Somnath Chatterjee. Giant slayer, she was called then.
In 1997, she quit Congress and birthed TMC soon after. Then, she joined and quit the Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh governments, both equally whimsically, which earned her the epithet ‘mercurial Mamata’. With Singur, Nandigram and her victory in West Bengal in 2011, ‘Mamata magic’ was the talk of the town.
She has transitioned today from mercurial Mamata and magical Mamata to master politician.
She hiked the outlay of the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme in her February budget, two months before the election. Till March 2024, the 2.15 crore women beneficiaries were getting Rs 500 per month under the scheme, Rs 1,000 if they were SC or ST. From 1 April, the direct bank transfer to their bank accounts jumped to Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,200.
One BJP leader was quoted saying that the scheme would be axed once the party came to power. BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari desperately tried to damage control and promised to hike payment to Rs 3,000 per month. But Amit Shah wrecked it all by saying the BJP would increase the Lakshmir Bhandar outlay by a measly Rs 100. Suvendu scrambled again to explain that Shah meant Rs 100 per day or Rs 3, 000 per month as he had promised. But it was too late.
Modi was circumspect throughout the campaign. No repeats of taunting references to Didi in his 20-odd election rallies. But Amit Shah’s repeated use of words like ghuspetiya (infiltrators) and tushtikaran (appeasement) didn’t go down well at all with voters. His attempt to polarise votes and consolidate the Hindu vote against Mamata backfired. The TMC got a 46 per cent vote share, much more than the 30 per cent minority vote share in the state. At least 16 per cent of the Hindu vote went to her, even after she picked a fight in the middle of the polls with members of social organisations like Bharat Seva Sangha, Rama Krishna Mission and Iskcon—all much revered by Bengali Hindus.
She weaponised Bengali outrage against the BJP and its aggressive transgressions into ballistic missiles. In the battle between tanashahi (dictatorship) and tushtikaran, Bengal’s voters won the day decisively for Didi.
Assembly election 2026 is now around the corner. The 2021 numbers were TMC 215 and BJP 77. For TMC, it should be smooth sailing. Battered and bulldozed BJP will have to start from scratch.
Monideepa Banerjie is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. She tweets @Monideepa62. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Seems like more of a TMC media release, than a journalist’s article.
Pls understand that TMC starts every election with almost 30% votes. Bjp has to win 70% of remaining 70%. It can never happen. No master or mercurial. Its numbers. So calm down.