Congress spoiled Trinamool’s party, Left hurt BJP’s chances in Bengal’s triangular fight

The results of the Lok Sabha election in West Bengal indicate that in nearly a third of constituencies, 14 of the 42 seats, the candidates of the Left Front and the Congress secured more votes than the winning margin.

While the Congress candidates spoiled the Trinamool Congress’ party, the Left Front hurt the chances of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For an election that was largely considered to be bipolar, the results throw an interesting paradox where the vote share of the Congress at 4.68% and the CPI(M) at 5.65%, barely crossing 10% together, made a significant impact on the outcome.

For instance, in the Raiganj seat in north Bengal, the BJP’s Kartick Chandra Paul won by a margin of 68,197 votes against the Trinamool’s Krishna Kalyani in a contest in which the Congress’ Ali Imran Ramz secured about 2.63 lakh votes. In the Malda Uttar seat, the BJP’s Khagen Murmu defeated the Trinamool’s Prasun Banerjee by 77,708 votes. The Congress’s Alam Mustaque, who finished third, secured 3.84 lakh votes.

The influence of the Congress was not limited to north Bengal. In south Bengal’s Purulia, the BJP candidate Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato won by a margin of 17,079 votes against the Trinamool’s Shantiram Mahato. The Congress candidate Nepal Mahato got 1.29 lakh votes.

The Trinamool won 29 of the 42 seats, the BJP won 12 seats and the Congress got one seat. The Trinamool’s vote share stood at 45.76%, while the BJP secured 38.73% votes.

Speaking to journalists after the Lok Sabha election results were announced on June 4, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool chairperson Mamata Banerjee said her party candidates had lost in four seats because of the Congress. Though part of the INDIA bloc, the Trinamool decided to contest the election on its own in West Bengal. The Left and the Congress came together to contest 42 seats. After the results, the Trinamool chairperson pledged her allegiance to the INDIA bloc and party leader Abhishek Banerjee participated in a meeting chaired by Congress president Mallikararjun Kharge on June 5.

In seats in South Bengal, the picture is reversed with the CPI(M) candidates securing more votes than the margin of victory. In the Dum Dum constituency, the Trinamool’s Saugata Roy won by a margin of about 70,000 votes in a contest in which the CPI(M)‘s Sujan Chakraborty got 2.4 lakh votes.

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In the Jadavpur seat, the Trinamool’s Sayoni Ghosh won by 2.58 lakh votes against the BJP’s Anirban Ganguly. The CPI(M)‘s Srijan Bhattacharyya secured 2.58 lakh votes. In Krishnanagar, Trinamool candidate Mahua Moitra won by 56,000 votes against her nearest BJP rival. The CPI(M) candidate S.M. Sadi secured 1.8 lakh votes from the seat. In Kolkata Uttar, Trinamool leader Sudip Banerjee won by a margin of about 92,560 votes whereas the Congress’s Pradip Bhattacharya secured 1.1 lakh votes.

Several seats in south Bengal such as Barrackpore, Asansol, Bankura, Bardhaman Purba, Bardhaman Durgapur, Hooghly, Sreerampore witnessed contests in which the votes secured by the Left Front candidates were higher than the margin of victory for the Trinamool candidate.

Psephologist and political observer Biswanath Chakraborty said the Chief Minister was referring to Raiganaj and Malda Uttar seats when she said that her candidates lost out because of the Congress. “However, in south Bengal the votes secured by CPI(M) candidates are more than the margin of victory in several seats,” Mr. Chakraborty said.

Analysis of the results also shows that the margin of victory of Trinamool candidates is much higher than the BJP winners.