Shubhdeep Chowdhary
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 24
After emerging as a strong player in the state politics, the BJP seems to be losing fast with its performance declining in successive elections in West Bengal.
The BJP’s new state committee was announced by its state unit president Sukanta Majumdar, a day after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) defeated the BJP in Kolkata civic polls and six months later the saffron camp won the state’s 294 assemblies. Out of only 77 was achieved. seats against TMC’s 213.
After a stellar performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which saw the BJP rise to 18 out of the two seats it won in 2014 in West Bengal, the saffron party has been on a steady decline in the eastern state.
While the BJP’s score rose to 77 in the 2021 assembly elections, compared to just three seats in 2016, the number fell far short of the majority. The results of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections, announced on December 21, have shed light on the rapidly shrinking base of the BJP in the eastern metropolis.
While the TMC won a landslide victory in 134 of the 144 wards that went to the KMC elections, the CPI(M)-led Left Front emerged as the second largest force in terms of vote share in the polls.
Ward-wise counting of 17 assembly constituencies falling under Kolkata Municipal Corporation area shows that Left Front candidates were runners-up in seven assembly constituencies, Congress in four, while BJP was runner-up in the remaining six.
In the assembly elections held in March-April this year, in all the 17 assembly constituencies, the BJP candidates were the closest rivals to the victorious TMC candidates.
In October, assembly bypolls were held to four seats in West Bengal, including Dinhata and Shantipur, constituencies that were won by BJP candidates at the time of the general election. TMC candidates defeated BJP candidates in both the seats.