The Trinamool Congress’s thumping victory in the four assembly constituencies in the October 30 by-polls has forced political observers to talk about not only the steep fall, but also the fall. BJPBut in the light of the result in Nadia’s Shantipur area, the electoral equations between CPM and Congress are likely to take a new turn.
Unlike the assembly elections held earlier this year, the CPM had fielded a candidate in Shantipur and the move yielded the desired electoral dividend as its candidate – popular leader Soumen Mahto – got 39958 votes, 19.57 of the total vote share. % Was. In fact, the CPM’s numbers were just 7,500 less than the BJP, which finished second.
In May, the CPI(M) did not contest from Shantipur, but allotted it to alliance partner Congress. CPI(M), Congress and Indian Secular Front (ISF) contested the assembly elections together. The gamble failed as the Congress candidate received 9,848 votes, or just 4.48% of the total votes.
In the October 30 by-election, the Congress, which had opted to contest alone, saw its vote share drop further to just 1.40%.
CPM sources said the lead from Shantipur has already sparked a debate on whether the party should fight the future election battle in alliance with the Congress or organize its own movements against the Trinamool and the BJP.
While it is not clear whether the Congress followed the dharma of the coalition by not fielding candidates in the remaining three seats – Dinhata, Gosaba and Kharda – in the bypolls, it is clear that the Left Front got almost as many votes as it got. Assembly elections in three seats in May.
In Dinhata and Gosaba, Left Front allies Forward Bloc and RSP got 2.79% and 1.66% votes respectively in the bypolls, indicating a slight increase and decrease in their vote share from 2.49% in these two seats in the assembly elections.
In Khardah, the vote share of the CPM declined to 10.39% from 14.7 per cent in May 2021 in the by-elections held on October 30.
While the Congress planned to field a candidate on behalf of the ‘Sanjukta Morcha’ to contest the Shantipur election in the 2021 assembly elections, the CPM had started painting wall graffiti on behalf of its favorite candidate. However, the CPM later withdrew from the election after an agreement with the Congress.
After the bypoll results, a section of the CPM believes that the party will not only go it alone in future elections to gain more electoral gains, but also win back the votes polled by the Trinamool and the BJP in the last few elections.
However, there is another section which believes that Shantipur cannot be taken as a template for future elections. A senior CPI(M) leader said, “Some of our leaders feel that going alone in West Bengal will benefit the Left Front more. However, the claim is debatable. The result of just one by-election is not enough to reach this conclusion.
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