Left-Congress may have played spoilsport for BJP in at least 12 seats of Bengal

The combine fielded a mix of popular and senior leaders from its strongholds, with the aim of securing the maximum number of seats. “While we failed to increase our tally, we managed to increase our vote share in some seats,” a senior Congress leader said. The Congress and Left parties are a part of the Opposition INDIA bloc.

Election Commission (EC) data shows that the Congress-Left combine may have impacted the chances of the TMC in seats like Balurghat, Raigunj and Maldaha Uttar. The TMC lost the Maldaha Uttar and Raigunj seats by 77,708 and 68,197 votes respectively as Congress candidates secured over 2 and 3 lakh votes respectively in the two seats.

The Congress, which contested 12 seats, secured a vote share of 19% and emerged victorious in one seat – Maldaha Dakshin – while securing the second spot in Baharampur and Jangipur.

“In North Bengal and Murshidabad, the minority votes were split between us and the TMC, which got a lion’s share of the votes. But, we have increased our vote share as compared to the 2021 Assembly election,” a senior Congress leader said.

On the other hand, in south Bengal, the CPI(M) may have managed to regain a minor share of the Hindu vote which had consolidated in favour of the BJP. The increase in the Left’s vote share in the region is being seen as a key factor in denting the BJP’s prospects in at least a dozen seats.

However, the CPI(M) failed to make inroads in the minority vote bank of the TMC.

In Asansol, the BJP’s S S Ahluwalia fell short by a margin of 59,564 votes while the CPI(M) candidate secured over 1 lakh votes as the TMC’s Shatrughan Sinha won. In Arambaghm, the TMC’s winning margin stood at 6,399, while the CPI(M), which finished third, secured over 92,000 votes. Similarly, in Hooghly, the BJP lost the seat to the TMC by a margin of 76,853 votes while third-place CPI(M) got over 1.39 lakh votes. In Birbhum and Kolkata Uttar, Congress candidates secured 16% and 12% of the votes, which may have dented the BJP’s chances.

“We knew we were not in a position to erode the TMC vote bank. After the third phase of polling, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP started a communal campaign, which forced the minorities to vote in favour of the TMC. We got some success but expected a sharper rise in vote share,” a senior CPI(M) leader said.

CAA bore no fruit for BJP

Meanwhile, the CAA, which the BJP hoped would consolidate the Bangladeshi refugee community of the state in its favour seemingly failed to deliver electoral success.

In the 2019 polls, the BJP had won three of the six seats dominated by the Matua community riding on the promise of CAA implementation. However, despite notifying the rules of the CAA just ahead of the polls, the BJP lost the Cooch Behar seat and retained Bangaon and Ranaghat with a marginal dip in vote share.

Matuas, numbering around 1.5 crore, are Dalits who migrated to India during Partition and in later years, and are concentrated in the districts of North 24 Parganas and Nadia, with a sizeable chunk in Purba Bardhaman, South 24 Parganas and Cooch Behar.

In Bangaon, former Union minister Shantanu Thakur secured 48.19% of the votes while TMC candidate Biswajit Das bagged 43.25% of the votes. In 2019, Thakur had got 48.85% of the votes. In Ranaghat, sitting MP Jagannath Sarkar, who had received 52.78% of the votes in 2019, retained his seat with a 50.78% vote share.

On the other hand, the TMC retained the other three Matua-dominated seats – Krishnanagar (Mahua Moitra), Barasat (Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar) and Bardhaman Purba (Sharmila Sarkar).

BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya accused the TMC of misleading people regarding the CAA. “They instilled a sense of fear among the community by confusing them and trying to divide the community. We could not counter it,” he said.

The TMC, during the campaign, had claimed that those applying for citizenship under the CAA would land in detention camps, “akin to what happened in Assam”.