Kolkata: An eight per cent positive vote swing in its favour finally enabled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to increase its winning seat tally by 129 and form the new government in West Bengal for the first time since independence.
In the recently concluded Assembly polls in the state, the BJP has ended the tally with 206 constituencies, up by 129 from 77 in 2021.
As per statistics available from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, this remarkable jump in the winning seat tally was fuelled by an eight per cent positive vote swing in favour of the BJP camp from 38 per cent in 2021 to 46 per cent in 2026.
Similarly, if the current results of the BJP are compared with the Assembly-wise results in West Bengal in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the progress is equally impressive both seat-wise and vote percentage-wise.
As per the Assembly-wise results in West Bengal in 2024, the BJP was ahead in just 90 Assembly constituencies, bagging a percentage vote share of 39. So, if compared to that, in 2026, a positive vote swing of seven per cent has enabled the BJP to improve its seat-winning tally by 116 from what it was in 2024.
This time, the combined vote percentage share of CPI(M)-led Left Front and Congress, with both parties contesting independently, is around eight per cent (around five per cent for Left Front and around three per cent for Congress). While Congress has managed to send two representatives to the West Bengal Assembly this time, the Left Front has managed to send only one.
Both in the 2021 Assembly elections and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress and the Left Front had a seat-sharing arrangement. In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, the combined vote percentage share of Congress and Left Front was a little less than nine. Neither the Left Front nor Congress was able to send a single representative to the Assembly in 2021.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, too, the combined vote percentage share of Left Front and Congress hovered around eight per cent.
This time, All India Secular Front (AISF)’s Nawsad Siddique managed to retain his seat from the Bhangar Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district.
The surprise emergence was the former Trinamool Congress legislator, Humayun Kabir, who founded Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) this time. Kabir got elected from both Naoda and Rejinagar constituencies in the minority-dominated Murshidabad district.
(IANS)
