Mamata Banerjee wins West Bengal again, to take vaccine fight to Centre now

Main Minister Mamata Banerjee landed a landslide victory for her Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the West Bengal Assembly election, the final result of which was introduced on Sunday, decimating the challenges by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But there continues to be a confusion in excess of the result in Nandigram, the seat of her prestige fight with previous celebration colleague and now a BJP member, Suvendu Adhikari.

A 3-member TMC delegation was comprehended to have met the Main Electoral Officer at the Election Fee workplace in Kolkata and sought a recount in Nandigram, even as Banerjee’s protégé-turned-adversary Adhikari tweeted thanking the people of Nandigram for their “like, have faith in, blessings and help” and for choosing him as their representative. He even tweeted a final result annexure displaying a profitable margin of one,736 votes.

On the other hand, the vote count would have to be verified against voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT). If Banerjee loses Nandigram, she would have to get re-elected inside of 6 months.

In the superior-stakes 294-seat point out election, the Trinamool Congress registered its greatest functionality at any time, profitable or leading in 216 seats and bagging a vote share of forty eight for every cent, as Bengal shrugged off allegations of “cut money” and corruption levelled by the Opposition against the incumbent.

“This is Bengal’s victory and victory of the people. They talked about a double-motor government, but I mentioned we would rating a double century. And you know what has took place,” Banerjee mentioned.

On the other hand, Banerjee cautioned against victory celebrations in the wake of increasing Covid-19 conditions and mentioned a victory rally at the Brigade Parade floor would transpire only following the existing coronavirus condition was in manage.

Commenting on the mandate, Primary Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Congratulations to Mamata Didi for @AITCofficial’s get in West Bengal. The Centre will proceed to lengthen all feasible help to the West Bengal government to fulfil people’s aspirations and also to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic.”

He also tweeted: “I would like to thank my sisters and brothers of West Bengal who have blessed our celebration. From a negligible presence before, BJP’s presence has considerably improved. BJP will continue to keep serving the people. I applaud each and each individual karyakarta for their spirited exertion in the polls.”

The BJP has produced huge gains from its functionality in the 2016 Assembly election, but fell much small of its personal projection of two hundred seats, even as its central leadership – from Primary Minister Narendra Modi to Union Residence Minister Amit Shah, central ministers and chief ministers from states dominated by the celebration, flew in and out for the election marketing campaign.

The saffron party’s seat tally (victory and sales opportunities as of the time of publication) was at seventy three and its vote share 38 for every cent. That’s a huge bounce from 2016, when it experienced got just 3 seats and a vote share of 10.sixteen for every cent. In 2011, it experienced got a vote share of four.fourteen for every cent and failed to bag any seat.

The functionality, however, experienced peaked in the Lok Sabha election of 2019 – when faith-primarily based identification politics experienced taken the centre phase – and its vote share experienced surged to 40.64 for every cent, with the seat tally at eighteen. The surge indicated that Bengal could be headed for “poriborton” (adjust).

Even though BJP has misplaced vote share considering that, the mandate has reconfirmed that the fight in Bengal is now totally bipolar – in between the BJP and the Trinamool – as the Still left Front-Congress-ISF alliance has fallen flat. The Congress has got a vote share of three.01 for every cent and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) four.fifty five for every cent, but neither has bagged any seat. The ISF is leading in 1 seat.

Political analysts pointed out that in Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur, minority votes virtually solely shifted to the Trinamool Congress from the Congress.

“(In) the very last 3 phases, the Trinamool Congress received a lot more than envisioned because of to Covid mismanagement by the Centre. It looks there was a swing in favour of the TMC,” mentioned an analyst.

About 114 seats went to vote in the very last 3 phases throughout Malda, Murshidabad, Dinajpur, Kolkata (South & North), Bardhaman and Birbhum.

Besides Adhikari, all of the Trinamool turncoats who experienced joined the BJP ahead of the elections misplaced. In Singur – the seat of land agitation in 2011 which experienced found Banerjee’s increase to power – Trinamool candidate Becharam Manna received by a huge margin of 25,923 votes, defeating Rabindranath Bhattacharya, who experienced switched sides to the BJP just before the election.

“This is like a reverse tsunami,” mentioned a bureaucrat.

But an analyst pointed out that partly this was also a mandate for Mamata Banerjee’s welfare schemes.

A large outreach programme, Duare Sarkar, was launched ahead of the election to deliver twelve welfare schemes, together with Khadya Sathi (foods security), Kanyashree (money guidance to women for pursuing greater education), Krishak Bondhu (for farmers and sharecroppers), and the star attraction Swasthya Sathi (the universal health and fitness scheme), at the doorstep. Fundamental principles like roadways, drinking drinking water and electric power in the very last 10 yrs have been also brought into target.

Banerjee’s up coming process is slash out, much too — taking care of the increasing Covid conditions in the point out. She mentioned she would guide a movement against the Centre for free of charge vaccines.