DM Monitoring
NEW DELHI: A day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led the Trinamool Congress to a spectacular victory by defeating the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the eastern Indian state of Bengal, experts on Monday warned that the BJP’s loss in the crucial regional polls could have significant implications on national politics.
Five state assemblies went to the polls last month. However, the Bengal polls were the most watched and bitterly contested, with the top BJP leadership putting everything at stake to wrest the largest state in eastern India.
During the campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed 38 election rallies in the eight-phase elections, while almost all of his Cabinet remained in Bengal for over a month in a bid to secure votes.
In a house of 294, Bengal’s ruling TMC improved its performance by winning 213 seats, three more than in the previous poll, while the BJP secured 77, a poor result compared with the previous parliamentary elections when it won 18 out of 42 parliamentary seats or roughly 140 seats in the local assembly.
“This is a historic and significant victory as we managed to stop the march of communal forces in Bengal,” TMC leader Ananya Chakraborty told media. “The secular fabric of the nation was saved by defeating the BJP. Had they won, it would have given them extra power to turn this nation into a Hindu majoritarian state,” Chakraborty added.
However, political experts differed in their analysis of the verdict, with some describing it as “a major setback to Modi’s political charisma” and others as a result of voter “resentment.”
“This is the first time Modi’s dominance is being challenged decisively,” Sudheendra Kulkarni, a Mumbai-based political analyst and the former political adviser to the first BJP government in 1999, told media.
“Never in the history of the BJP since 1980 has it fought a state election with a total determination to win and in which the prime minister put everything at stake. Still, they could manage only 77 seats, which is 50 less than what they have gained in 2019 parliamentary elections,” he added.
