The fall in Bhabanipur: Mamata Banerjee’s loss signals TMC’s wider collapse

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who came to power in 2011, riding on people's support and the Singur and Nandigram movement, lost from Bhabanipur constituency by 15,105 votes.

"I thank the people of Bhabanipur for voting for me and ensuring a margin of over 15,000 votes," BJP's Suvendu Adhikari said after his victory in the high-profile constituency, and after holding the winning certificate. The result is a virtual "action replay" of the 2021 Nandigram battle.

Also Read: Breaking the eastern barrier: Bengal triumph redraws BJP’s political map


Banerjee's anti-SIR narrative, an antagonised Muslim vote bank and appeasement politics, the threat to Muslims that BJP will send them to detention camps if they don't vote for TMC boomeranged.

This coupled with corruption, anti-incumbency, the job scam in SSC where 26,000 teachers lost jobs, the multi-crore ration scam, the coal and sand scams and a rejigged administrative mechanism, which was reshuffled by ECI ahead of elections, went against Trinamool Congress. Muslim voters were antagonised due to the failed promises of Mamata Banerjee on stopping SIR, Waqf and the OBC list.

Banerjee had made the ECI a key feature in the polls, clubbing it with BJP and attacked SIR during her poll campaign. But ECI conducted the Bengal polls without a single poll-related death, with stringent action against musclemen and goons.

Also Read: Bengal’s ‘M’ math misfire: How muslim fragmentation and mohila drift tilted the field for BJP

ECI started building confidence among electors with the deployment of CAPF a month ahead of the polls. At least 1,000 police and administration staff were reshuffled in two months. All these measures were taken to ensure free and fair polls and this facilitated the people to come out in large numbers and vote. All these factors went against the Trinamool.