Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) snatched yet another assembly constituency from the BJP by winning the Dhupguri bypoll.
While West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, one of the key faces of the INDIA alliance, continues her domination, Friday’s results have only underlined the BJP’s steady slide in the state since it put up a strong fight against the ruling TMC in the 2021 assembly elections.
The TMC defeated BJP by a narrow 2.05 percent votes in the Dhupguri bypoll, possibly the last election in the state before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Since the 2021 assembly elections, eight bypolls have been held in the state — Dinhata, Khardah, Santipur, Gosaba, Ballygunge, Sagardighi, Bhawanipur (from where Mamata won to continue as chief minister after losing from Nandigram constituency), and Dhupguri. The BJP scored a duck and was pushed to the third spot in two bypoll seats.
Out of these eight seats, the BJP’s Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar had won from Dinhata and Santipur in 2021, but both vacated their MLA seats and retained their parliament membership. The Sagardighi bypoll was won by the Congress but MLA Byron Biswas later joined the TMC.
In 2021, the BJP won 77 out of a total 294 assembly seats in Bengal but now that number too has gone down to 68 with six MLAs jumping ship to TMC, two MLAs retaining their MP status and the death of one MLA that initiated the latest bypoll in the state.
While state leaders had been reshuffled and Sukanta Majumdar replaced Dilip Ghosh as the state president in September 2021, it was under Dilip Ghosh’s leadership that the party recorded an impressive performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, where its score went from just two MPs to 18 Lok Sabha seats out of 42 in Bengal. The BJP had scored a whopping 40.2 percent vote share in 2019 — up from just 17 percent in the 2016 Lok Sabha polls, a rise of 23 per cent — while the TMC was not very far ahead with a voteshare of 43.3 percent.
In the Dhupguri bypoll, the BJP fielded martyred CRPF jawan’s wife Tapasi Roy. Her husband Jagannath Roy was killed during a terrorist attack in Kashmir back in 2021. “I would like to thank the people of Dhupguri, I was confident of a victory, I will continue to fight,” said Tapasi after her defeat, while speaking to ThePrint.
The CPI(M) had fielded Iswar Chandra Roy, a singer whose candidature was supported by the Congress. He polled 13,666 votes (6.52 percent). The TMC’s winning candidate, Nirmal Chandra Roy, a professor, secured 46.28 percent of the votes.
West Bengal BJP co-in-charge Amit Malviya took to social media platform X to call the TMC’s victory short-lived: “The marginal win for the ruling TMC, just before the 2024 Lok Sabha election, is an indication of times ahead. Both Mamata Banerjee and her heir apparent were invested in the bypoll, but still could barely scrape through!”
He further wrote: “People are fed up with her regressive politics, which thrives on blocking central govt schemes (for example Ayushman Bharat, CSC), corruption (NREGA, PM Aawas, job for cash etc) and cut money. The demeaning comment on the proud Rajbongshi community has convinced the Dalits and Tribals in West Bengal, that Mamata Banerjee abhors them and treats them with disdain.”
Also Read: ‘My Bengal strategy ignored’ — Netaji’s grandnephew quits BJP, claims party not inclusive
‘Weak organisation, factionalism’
Political analyst Udyan Bandopadhyay attributed the BJP’s slide to various factors. “BJP’s organisation has only been getting weaker, it has been unable to keep its flock together, its votes are declining and factionalism within the party is resulting in consecutive defeats not once but eight times. This also proves that its media gimmicks are not being taken seriously by the voters,” he told ThePrint.
Not just bypolls, the BJP witnessed a sharp decline in its vote share during the July panchayat polls as well. With a 40 percent vote share in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, 38 percent in 2021 state elections, the party is down to 23 percent vote share in the panchayat elections.
Political analyst Snigdhendu Bhattacharya told ThePrint, “TMC’s victory reaffirms the post-2021 trend of the downward slide in the BJP’s vote share. The Left-Congress, on the other hand, are finding it difficult to place themselves as a formidable opposition to the TMC, with Congress-TMC-Left being part of INDIA alliance.”
TMC leader Jay Prakash Majumdar, who was earlier part of the BJP in West Bengal, attributed the party’s poor performance to organisational reasons. “BJP in West Bengal has no future. Its organisational strength is very poor, workers are unhappy, MLAs are defecting and there is factional fight within the party. How can it fight with so many internal problems that it fails to resolve?”
A senior state BJP leader on condition of anonymity told ThePrint that it was a natural trend for the ruling party to win bypolls but the fact that the party is unable to retain its seats is a cause for concern. “We need to go back to the drawing board and self-assess where we are going wrong, Parliament elections aren’t far.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also Read: BJP MP Locket Chatterjee breaks down, says ‘what happened in Bengal as shameful’ as Manipur incident