Left supporters helped BJP, says Trinamool Congress after poor show

Incidentally, the Left Front lost 22.21% of vote share in this year's general election

Apart from alleging that the BJP used cash to sway voters in its favour, the TMC blamed Left Front supporters, accusing them of conniving with and supporting the BJP to take on the TMC in West Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. 

The TMC lost 12 seats in the election while the BJP gained 16 seats. The Congress lost two seats and the Left Front drew a blank. In the 2014 general elections, the TMC had won 34 seats, the BJP stood at only two while the Congress bagged four seats and the Left Front had won 2. 

“Is there anything left of the Left? When they saw that they cannot take on Mamata Banerjee, they brought in a crocodile. I ask them if Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Jyoti Basu will support what they have done. I appeal to them not to make this blunder again,” TMC general secretary of West Bengal, Partha Chatterjee told mediapersons. 

He was responding to a question about the Left Front and how the BJP was able to increase its seat count in this state. 

By crocodile, Chatterjee was referring to the BJP. Bhattacharjee and Basu, were chief ministers of West Bengal under the Left Front regime before Banerjee ousted it in 2011. 

Chatterjee’s accusations have also found support among political observers. 

While citing the reasons for the BJP’s momentous rise and the TMC’s subsequent loss of Lok Sabha seats, Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chaudhury, said, “The Left Front supporters had perceived the TMC as a greater danger than the Hindutva touting BJP and voted for it.” 

Incidentally, the Left Front lost 22.21 per cent of vote share in this year’s general election at 7.5 per cent while the BJP gained 23.3 per cent vote share to command a total vote share of 40.3 per cent. Despite the loss of seats, the TMC gained a 4.25 per cent vote share at 43.30 per cent.

Over speculation of TMC leaders and legislators quitting the party to change allegiance to the BJP, Chatterjee said, “Nobody is leaving the TMC”.

The party, on Friday suspended Subhranshu Roy for six years on account of anti-party comments and statements. Chatterjee alleged that Roy had been speaking against the party for quite some time and it was time to take disciplinary action against him. 

Subhranshu Roy is the son of former railway minister, Mukul Roy, who changed his allegiance to the BJP from the TMC. The senior Roy has been an architect in BJP’s surge in this state.