Mamata Banerjee says Bengal saved India; Left Front, Congress draw a blank

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Kolkatta, May 2, 2021: Mamata Banerjee’s TMC has won 213 seats in West Bengal and is leading in 2 more seats, looking set to win 215 seats, bettering its 211 score in the 2016 assembly polls. The main challenger BJP improved its 2016 tally of 3 to a sharp 75 wins but has failed to cross the 100 mark, as predicted by Prashant Kisor.

Thanking the people after the landslide victory in the assembly elections Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday that West Bengal has "saved" India with its mandate. Banerjee said tackling the COVID-19 pandemic was her priority, asking party leaders not to organise any victory rally. "It is the victory of the people of Bengal, the victory of democracy. Bengal has saved India today, she said.

This landslide victory came after fighting against several odds - the Centre, its machinery, its agencies. This victory has saved the humanity," Banerjee said, addressing the press as she stood on her feet for the first time in nearly two months. "I am doing well now. I told you a few days back that I have recovered and will remove the plaster," she said, referring to the injury she received on March 10 during her visit to Nandigram, which forced her to continue the election campaign on a wheelchair.

he CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Congress party, which ruled the state for nearly six decades between them, face an unprecedented rout in West Bengal assembly elections trailing in all 292 seats which went to polls. An alliance with the newly-formed ISF does not seem to have helped the CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Congress combine. The Congress, which was the main opposition party in the outgoing assembly with 44 seats, had entered into an alliance with the Left Front in the 2016 assembly elections also.

The Left Front, which was in third position in the 2016 election results with 32 seats, had failed to win any of the 42 constituencies in West Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, while the Congress emerged victorious in two. The CPI(M)-led LF, which ruled the state from 1977 to 2011, is staring at the bleak prospect of going unrepresented in the next West Bengal assembly.

The CPI(M) had fielded a bunch of young candidates, including JNU Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh, Dipshita Dhar and Minakshi Mukherjee, along with veterans like politburo member Md Salim, Sujan Chakraborty and Asok Bhattacharya in a bid to appeal to both the young generation and its traditional voters.

Meanwhile, talking about her defeat on Sunday, Banerjee said, “I accept the verdict for Nandigram. I will go to the constitutional bench. It is a landslide victory for TMC, and BJP has lost the election. They played dirty politics, the officers there have told me so..Lakshman rekha for the EC is needed."