Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to form the new government in West Bengal with a two-thirds majority, bringing to an end the 15-year Trinamool Congress regime in the state.
In the 294-member West Bengal Assembly, the two-thirds majority mark is 196. On Monday, counting was completed and results were declared for 293 Assembly constituencies, as the Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced repolling for the entire Falta Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district on May 21, with results to be declared on May 24.
Of the 293 Assembly constituencies for which results were declared, the BJP finished with 206 seats, followed by the Trinamool Congress at 81, the Congress at two, the CPI(M) at one, the All India Secular Front (AISF) at one, and the Humayun Kabir-founded Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) at two.
In percentage terms, the BJP’s vote share of the total votes polled stands at 46 per cent, followed by the Trinamool Congress at 41 per cent, the CPI(M)-led Left Front at 4 per cent, the Congress at 3 per cent, and others including the AISF and the AJUP at 6 per cent.
In ten districts — Cooch Behar, East Midnapore, West Burdwan, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Jhargram, Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Bankura and Purulia — Trinamool Congress candidates failed to win a single Assembly constituency.
The Trinamool Congress, at the same time, was defeated in all tribal- and Matua-dominated Assembly constituencies in the state.
A number of heavyweight members of the Mamata Banerjee-led Cabinet, including the Chief Minister herself, were defeated from their respective Assembly constituencies.
Among those defeated were Minister of State for Finance (Independent Charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya, Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Minister Dr Shashi Panja, Fire Services Minister Sujit Bose, Education Minister Bratya Basu, North Bengal Development Minister Udayan Guha, and Power Minister Aroop Biswas, among others.
Significantly, three journalist-turned politicians were elected as BJP candidates. They are Swapan Dasgupta from the Rashbehari constituency in south Kolkata, state BJP vice-president Jagannath Chattopadhyay from Suri in Birbhum district, and Santu Pan from Tarakeswar in Hooghly district.
However, another journalist-turned politician and the Trinamool Congress’ prospective finance ministerial candidate, Devdeep Purohit, was defeated from the Khardah Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district by a margin of over 21,000 votes.
Another significant victory for the BJP was from the Panihati Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district, where its candidate Swapna Debnath won. She is the mother of a junior doctor at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, who was the victim of a ghastly rape and murder within the hospital premises in August 2024.
(IANS)
