KOLKATA: Bhowanipore’s voters have given Mamata Banerjee the mandate she needed to continue as Bengal’s CM, electing their “ghorer meye” to the legislative assembly by a margin of 58,835 votes.
The Trinamool also retained Jangipur and Shamsherganj — the first by an even more staggering margin of 92,480 votes — to maintain its strength of 213 in the 294-member state assembly. But it was the nature of its victory in Bhowanipore that would help the party set the agenda for the four bypolls later this month and the civic elections after that, Trinamool seniors said.
Sunday’s win is the first time since 2014 that the Trinamool has led in all eight wards of this multi-lingual and multi-cultural constituency, a fact that gives Banerjee and her party the ammo they need to respond to the BJP’s jibes that it is overly dependent on specific voter blocs. This was a point that Banerjee herself emphasised on Sunday. “Every ward has given us a lead. This is a seat where Hindus stay with Muslims and Sikhs and Bengalis stay with Gujaratis, Punjabis, Odiyas, Biharis and people from Uttar Pradesh. I thank every one of them,” she said after her overwhelming victory.
Banerjee — by recording a victory margin of 58,000-plus votes — also won her biggest win in an assembly poll and as CM, bettering her own 2011 margin of 54,213 (that, too, was a by-election). Sunday’s victory margin was more than double the party’s April 26 victory margin of 28,719 votes, when it trailed in two wards (Chakraberia-Paddapukur and Alipore). Banerjee, after the last vote was counted, had got 71.9% of the votes cast, leaving only 22.2% for BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal; the BJP had got more than 35% votes barely five months back.
The CPM, too, was handed a body blow, getting only 3.5 % of the vote share and losing its deposit in a seat that was labelled “mini India” during the bypoll campaign.
Banerjee — clad in her usual white cotton sari with blue and green borders — stressed on all these points in her victory speech delivered on the lane outside her Kalighat home in the afternoon, when she was flanked by her sisters-in-law, nephew and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and his school-going daughter. The backdrop came in the form of a giant photo-collage that supporters had put up a few minutes back; on the collage was written “Modishahsurmardini (slayer of the Modi-Shah asura)”.
“There were so many conspiracies against me. The people of Bhowanipore have given a befitting reply to those conspiracies and the conspirators. Our entire party and myself are indebted to Bhowanipore’s voters and will remember this forever. You have inspired me to work harder,” Banerjee said as the crowd around her started its “Didi, Didi” chant. “They sent 3,500 central force personnel to this small constituency. But the people of Bhowanipore have given an answer on behalf of Bengal and India,” she added.
Banerjee, in the course of her seven-minute-31-second address, also cautioned party workers not to bring out victory rallies and not to go overboard with the celebrations; they should, she added, focus on helping flood victims across the state.
The date of Banerjee’s oath-taking ceremony was awaiting a nod from Raj Bhavan, Bengal assembly speaker Biman Banerjee said.
Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said the party accepted the people’s verdict. “But we have to ask whether the result truly reflects the mandate of the people when only 57% have voted,” he added. Bhowanipore, like the rest of Kolkata, usually has turnouts lower than the rest of the state even in general elections.
Tibrewal emphasised that she had got over 25,000 votes “in a contest against the CM”. “I am overwhelmed by the affection of people and the commitment of my party leadership and workers,” she said, admitting there was some “organisational weakness” that plagued the party in Bhowanipore.
