tmc-makes-inroads-in-north-bengal

The Mamata-Banerjee-led TMC proved its mettle in north Bengal, where the BJP had won all seven of the eight Lok Sabha seats in 2019.

 

In 2021, the Trinamool Congress regained some footing in the area and it continued this time too as the party won Cooch Behar, with Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia defeating Union Minister Nisith Pramanik by 39,250 votes. The Congress, meanwhile, retained Maldaha Dakshin.

 

The other area where the Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a setback is the tribal-dominated Jangalmahal region which has four Lok Sabha constituencies.

 

In 2019, the BJP won Jhargram, Bankura, Bishnupur, and Purulia. But this time it could retain only Bishnupur, where incumbent MP Saumitra Khan narrowly defeated his estranged spouse Sujata Mondal of the TMC by 5,557 votes, and Purulia, where incumbent MP Jyotirmay Singh Mahato defeated Shantiram Mahato of the TMC by 17,079 votes.

 

In south Bengal, the BJP managed to retain the Bangaon and Ranaghat constituencies that are dominated by members of the Matua (refugee community) religious community. Overall, the BJP retained Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduars, Raiganj, Balurghat, Maldaha Uttar, Purulia, Bishnupur, Ranaghat and Bangaon seats. In addition, it won Kanthi and Tamluk.

 

The TMC snatched the seats of Bardhaman-Durgapur, Hooghly, Medinipur, and Barrackpur from the BJP. The party retained Asansol, which the BJP won in 2019 but lost in a bypoll in 2022.

 

TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee scored a hat-trick in Diamond Harbour, winning by a record margin of 7.10 lakh votes, probably the highest-ever margin in Bengal in the last few decades.

 

The BJP, which hoped to make its presence felt in Basirhat Constituency, under which Sandeshkhali falls, saw its candidate Rekha Patra being humbled by TMC’s Haji Nurul Islam by nearly two lakh votes.

 

The TMC, which has been dominant in this region, nominated fresh candidates in six seats — three in North 24-Parganas, two in South 24-Parganas and one in Hooghly — due to anti-incumbency and non-performance of sitting MPs.

 

The BJP received a setback as Union minister and sitting MP Subhas Sarkar lost the Bankura seat to TMC’s Arup Chakraborty by a margin of 32,778 votes. TMC’s Mahua Moitra, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha last year in the cash-for-query scam, won adjoining Krishnanagar by 56,705 votes.