The Trinamool Congress (TMC) had a great win in the West Bengal 2024 Lok Sabha polls, as it won 29 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats till reports last came on Tuesday evening and final results are awaited.
By winning more number of seats in southern part of the state where it swept Gangetic West Bengal as well as Kolkata and its surroundings, the ruling party has weakened BJP’s hold over north Bengal and Jangalmahal, reducing its tally to 12.
TMC improved from 22 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 to 29 seats in 2024 while BJP declined from 18 to only 12. The ruling party of the state registered about 46% vote share whereas, BJP recorded a percentage vote share of approximately.38%.
Mamata Banerjee the TMC chairperson and Chief Minister of West Bengal after securing emphatic victory in the Lok Sabha polls has emerged key player in national politics. While TMC was part of INDIA Opposition alliance but fought the Indian parliamentary election alone without any electoral understanding with either left parties or INC.
Ms. Banerjee stated that these figures showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi had completely lost credibility and therefore must vacate office immediately. She said Mr. Modi’s alliance had not got the numbers — two-third majority — and thus would not be able to change the Constitution.
She also appealed to non-INDIA alliance political parties for helping her keep Mr. Modi from coming back again.“I will try to see that Mr. Modi is out and INDIA is in. We will request those supporting the government not to do so,” she said.Despite congratulating Rahul [Gandhi], he has yet acknowledged this”
Among notable politicians losing their seats were five-time MP from Congress who happens to be also West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury who was beaten hands down by TMC’s Yusuf Pathan from Baharampur. TMC candidate Kirti Azad defeated an ex-state BJP president Dilip Ghosh who tried to get Burdwan Durgapur seat. Jagadish Chandra Basunia was also able to beat Nisith Pramanik, a TMC candidate and a BJP MP took away his party’s Coochbehar seat, who once was the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs.
The BJP won six out of eight seats in north Bengal, two in Jangalmahal Purulia and Bishnupur, two seats — Tamluk and Kanthi — in Purba Medinipur district and two, Bongaon and Rangaghat, in the region bordering Bangladesh where the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was an issue.
BJP and other opposition parties had raised issues on corruption, recruitment scams, and women atrocities in Sandeshkhali but this did not reduce the support for Trinamool Congress. People of West Bengal with a concentration from the south region trusted Mamata Banerjee and her government’s cash incentive program Lakshmir Bhandar through which 2.18 crore women in the state are beneficiaries.
The poll results in West Bengal during Loksabha2014 seem to be an echo of what happened during assembly election held by the state in 2021. In spite of loud campaign by BJP, TMC maintained its dominance over southern part of Bengal almost getting similar vote share.
In Malda Dakshin Lok Sabha seat, Isha Khan Chowdhury won on Congress ticket was the sole exception amid those two poles. The left front drew blank with nearly 6% vote share while congress could secure about 5% votes.
The Lok Sabha elections were also seen as a referendum of the Trinamool Congress government led by Ms. Banerjee which came to power in its third term in 2021. The outcome has given a solid ground for TMC Government ahead of Assembly poll due by next six years:
