In Bengal, it looks like a long haul for BJP in run-up to 2024 LS polls

The Congress had no tie-up with the Left in 2021 while the ISF, an entity appealing distinctly to West Bengal's Muslims, emerged just before the last Assembly polls and made no impact then

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) sole consolation from the just-concluded, three-tiered West Bengal panchayat election is that it retained its second position, after the Trinamool Congress Party (TMC).

But caveats apply.
 

One, the vote polled by the BJP declined from 38.1 per cent in the last election (Assembly) in 2021 to 22.8 per cent, while significantly the share of the Left Front with its regional allies, the Congress and the Indian Secular Front (ISF), rose from 8.39 per cent to 20.9 per cent. The Congress had no tie-up with the Left in 2021 while the ISF, an entity appealing distinctly