The Trinamool Congress swept the civic elections in West Bengal on Tuesday, winning 70 out of 91 municipal bodies across the state. The Left Front came in a distant second winning six, while the Congress won five. The Bharatiya Janata Party failed to win in a single town. In the largest election, for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the Trinamool replicated its state-wide sweep, winning 114 out of 144 wards. The Left Front won 15, the BJP seven and the Congress five.
While the Trinamool win was expected, the Bharatiya Janata Party's poor results come as a wake-up call for the party after its strong performance in the general election of 2014 . In the Lok Sabha polls, the party managed a vote share of 17% in the state, its highest ever, not far behind second-placed Communist Party of India (Marxist), which got 23% of the vote. It did especially well in the capital, Kolkata, even if it did not win any seats there.
Given these indications, and the general downturn in the Left’s fortunes, it was expected that the BJP would slip into the main opposition seat. However, a few by-elections later and after the state civic elections, the saffron party’s ascendancy in the state looks tougher and the road to main opposition status far rockier than many predicted after the general election.
In September 2014, just three months after the BJP came to power at the Centre, West Bengal saw two assembly by-elections for which Amit Shah himself campaigned. The results were mixed: the Trinamool Congress bagged one (Chowringhee) comfortably, while the BJP won the other (Basirhat South) by a margin of less than 2,000 votes.
In another round of by-elections in February, the Trinamool Congress stamped its dominance. It won the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat by a record margin of 2.1 lakh votes and the Krishnaganj Assembly seat by nearly 37,000 votes.
Civic elections
Many have cast the civic polls across the state as a semi-final of sorts before the 2016 assembly elections. To everyone's surprise, the BJP performed abysmally in what was seen to be its strongest base in the state, Kolkata city, winning only seven wards. Had it retained its 2014 Lok Sabha voter base, it would have been able to win 26 wards.
Curiously, the BJP central leadership sent no top leaders to campaign for these civic elections. Moreover, the Centre refused to send its forces for law and order duties during the elections, despite this being a key demand of the state BJP unit. Even the Mamata Banerjee government had asked for Central forces after being prodded by the State Election Commission.
This lack of Central forces meant that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections were marred by violence, a factor that may have helped the ruling Trinamool Congress, given its superior organisational strength.
Left regrouping
The BJP's poor performance shows up its lack of organisational ground strength in Bengal.
The Kolkata-based The Telegraph noted that the BJP's “failure to build an organisation in the state” created basic problems. It was not able to provide ground support to first-time candidates and could not post party polling agents even in wards where the BJP had leads in the 2014 general election.
The party’s performance in the state in the last Lok Sabha election seems to have been driven primarily by the Modi factor, say analysts, but since then it has made little progress in building its ground strength, even in Kolkata. The fact that the BJP does not have any prominent state-level leaders also worked against it.
In this time, the CPI-M has also managed to regroup significantly and, in this round of the civic polls, seems to have stanched the outflow of voters, even if it currently poses no threat whatsoever to the dominant Trinamool Congress.
We welcome your comments at
letters@scroll.in.
While the Trinamool win was expected, the Bharatiya Janata Party's poor results come as a wake-up call for the party after its strong performance in the general election of 2014 . In the Lok Sabha polls, the party managed a vote share of 17% in the state, its highest ever, not far behind second-placed Communist Party of India (Marxist), which got 23% of the vote. It did especially well in the capital, Kolkata, even if it did not win any seats there.
Given these indications, and the general downturn in the Left’s fortunes, it was expected that the BJP would slip into the main opposition seat. However, a few by-elections later and after the state civic elections, the saffron party’s ascendancy in the state looks tougher and the road to main opposition status far rockier than many predicted after the general election.
In September 2014, just three months after the BJP came to power at the Centre, West Bengal saw two assembly by-elections for which Amit Shah himself campaigned. The results were mixed: the Trinamool Congress bagged one (Chowringhee) comfortably, while the BJP won the other (Basirhat South) by a margin of less than 2,000 votes.
In another round of by-elections in February, the Trinamool Congress stamped its dominance. It won the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat by a record margin of 2.1 lakh votes and the Krishnaganj Assembly seat by nearly 37,000 votes.
Civic elections
Many have cast the civic polls across the state as a semi-final of sorts before the 2016 assembly elections. To everyone's surprise, the BJP performed abysmally in what was seen to be its strongest base in the state, Kolkata city, winning only seven wards. Had it retained its 2014 Lok Sabha voter base, it would have been able to win 26 wards.
Curiously, the BJP central leadership sent no top leaders to campaign for these civic elections. Moreover, the Centre refused to send its forces for law and order duties during the elections, despite this being a key demand of the state BJP unit. Even the Mamata Banerjee government had asked for Central forces after being prodded by the State Election Commission.
This lack of Central forces meant that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections were marred by violence, a factor that may have helped the ruling Trinamool Congress, given its superior organisational strength.
Left regrouping
The BJP's poor performance shows up its lack of organisational ground strength in Bengal.
The Kolkata-based The Telegraph noted that the BJP's “failure to build an organisation in the state” created basic problems. It was not able to provide ground support to first-time candidates and could not post party polling agents even in wards where the BJP had leads in the 2014 general election.
The party’s performance in the state in the last Lok Sabha election seems to have been driven primarily by the Modi factor, say analysts, but since then it has made little progress in building its ground strength, even in Kolkata. The fact that the BJP does not have any prominent state-level leaders also worked against it.
In this time, the CPI-M has also managed to regroup significantly and, in this round of the civic polls, seems to have stanched the outflow of voters, even if it currently poses no threat whatsoever to the dominant Trinamool Congress.