TMC steamrolls to a massive first win in Asansol, snatches Ballygunge

Just weeks ahead of the first anniversary of its landslide win in the West Bengal assembly polls, the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC Saturday steamrolled to a massive win in the by-polls to Asansol Lok Sabha constituency by a mammoth margin of over 3 lakh votes coupled with a creditable victory in the prestigious Ballygunge assembly constituency.
 

The TMC had fielded veteran actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha from the industrial town which has a fair sprinkling of voters whose roots lie in Bihar, from where the septuagenarian too hails. However the all-time record margin of victory in this constituency took everyone by surprise, especially as TMC has won Asansol, a seat which BJP had won in the last two general elections handsomely and which used to be a Left bastion before that, for the very first time.
 

'Shotgun' Sinha's emphatic victory by a margin of 3,03,209 votes against his nearest BJP rival Agnimitra Paul and a campaign that dubbed him an “outsider”, gave his party one more seat in the Lok Sabha, taking TMC's tally to 23 and reducing BJP's tally by one seat.
 

"We consider this to be our people's warm 'Shubho Nababarsho' (Bengali New Year greetings) gift to our 'Ma-Mati-Manush' (Mother-Earth-People) organization. Salute to the voters for reposing faith in us, yet again," TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee said in a tweet.
 

The TMC bagged 56.62 per cent of the votes polled, while the BJP got 30.46 per cent votes. The by-poll saw a huge swing of 21 per cent votes in favour of the TMC from the saffron camp's kitty.
 

"The results are a testimony that I am no less a Bengali than any other Bengali. I am not an outsider. I am happy to win Asansol for the TMC, which it had never won before," Sinha told reporters.
 

Singer-turned-politician Babul Supriyo, who won the prestigious Ballygunge seat in upmarket south Kolkata by a margin of more than 20,000 votes over his nearest rival Saira Shah Halim of the CPI(M,) had won the Asansol seat in 2019 when he contested on a BJP ticket by a margin of 1.97 lakh.
 

Overturning this margin and then getting 1.10 lakh extra votes is being seen by analysts as quite a feat, credit for which should probably be shared by what is being called 'Mamata magic', Sinha's star appeal and meticulous organisational work by the TMC party.
 

What makes the victory margin more creditable is that it happened despite a lower voter turnout of 66.42 per cent compared to 76.62 per cent in 2019. Sinha garnered 6,56,358 votes against BJP's Agnimitra Paul's 3,53,149 votes.

Paul generously accepted that there was no rigging and that party needs to "introspect and strategise ahead for the 2024 general elections." However, former West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh alleged that TMC had unleashed a campaign of terror in the run up to the elections.
 

TMC leader Firhad Hakim speaking in Kolkata said "rising unemployment and prices and the lack of any steps to control them by the BJP central leadership" were among the causes for BJP's poor showing.
 

He also took a swipe at the BJP top leadership, which he described as "Nero fiddling while Rome burnt." Supriyo who has had a roller coaster journey in politics from a Bollywood singer who was fielded by the BJP in 2014 from Asansol and became a minister in the central government on the recommendation of Yoga Guru-turned-tycoon Ramdev, had been fielded for Ballygunge by the TMC, a party he joined last year after he was dropped from the Union cabinet.
 

Despite early hiccups when some groups came out against his candidature given his past links to BJP and statements against TMC, Supriyo managed a decent margin of victory even though it was far reduced compared to 2021 assembly elections when the late Subrata Mukherjee had won the seat by a massive near 70,000 votes.
 

The surprise factor in this key assembly constituency contest was that BJP was pushed from its second position and also saw its votes more than halved, while CPI(M) saw its vote share rise from 5.6 per cent to 30.1 per cent, giving credence to assertions by the party leadership that it was witnessing a resurgence.
 

"The Left Front is very happy … as the whole binary that was created between BJP and TMC has been shattered," Halim told PTI after the results for the Ballygunge assembly seat by-election was declared.

She pointedly stressed that the narrative that had been crafted that the TMC and BJP were the only competitors of each other has taken a blow owing to the Ballygunge result.
 

Political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty feels that the Ballygunge results have shown that a section of minorities who voted for the TMC last year switched to the CPI (M). However, others pointed out that this theory does not explain the huge reduction in vote share for the BJP.
 

Chakraborty also pointed out that the partial revival of the CPI (M), could help the ruling party as it would keep the opposition votes divided in the state.
 

The twin victories will add some lustre to TMC's celebrations planned for May 2 for its anniversary of returning to power in the bitterly contested assembly elections last year. However worries may still keep mounting for the ruling party given the apathy shown by voters in Kolkata, seen as the political and cultural heart of West Bengal.