KOLKATA: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the verge of a landslide victory in West Bengal, celebrations have begun outside the BJP office in both Kolkata and Salt Lake City. Besides sweets, BJP supporters and workers were seen sharing jhalmuri (spicy puffed rice). The popular Bengali snack made headlines after Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen enjoying it at a roadside stall during his election campaign ahead of the second phase. “I ate jalmuri, but TMC felt jal (hot and spicy),” Modi said.
BJP supporters played Holi in saffron and chanted slogans of Joy Shri Ram.
At the BJP office in Salt Lake, chefs can be seen preparing fish curry with rice, vegetables and dal for lunch.
The BJP, which has often been accused of being pro-vegetarianism, began promoting fish in its campaign in the run-up to the Assembly elections. Fish is part of the daily dish in most homes in Bengal.
The TMC has campaigned relentlessly to brand the BJP as a “party of outsiders” that goes against the culture of Bengal.
In contrast, the Trinamool office in Kolkata was deserted with only a few party workers inside.
On April 2, while addressing a rally in Bhabanipur in south Kolkata, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said there was a shortcut to bring about change in West Bengal — defeating Mamata Banerjee, the incumbent chief minister, in her Bhabanipur constituency.
“The responsibility to bring change in West Bengal lies in the hands of the voters of Bhabanipur,” Shah had said at an election meeting in Bhabanipur on April 2. “To bring about change, we will have to win seat after seat to reach the target of 170 seats. But I have a shortcut. If the voters of Bhabanipur secure just one seat, the change will come on its own.”
On Monday, more than a month later, Banerjee was defeated by BJP heavyweight candidate Suvendu Adhikari in Bhabanipur by 15,114 votes.
“It was very important to defeat Mamata. She started her political career. The Muslims of Bhabanipur did not vote for me. They voted wholeheartedly for her. She got the blessings of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and other communities,” Adhikari told reporters after receiving the winner’s certificate from the poll panel.
The BJP did not just limit itself to Bhabanipur, it bagged five of the 11 seats in Kolkata. These seats – Rashbehari in South Kolkata, Gorasanko, Shyampukur, Maniktala and Kashipur-Balagachia in North Kolkata, were considered strongholds of the TMC.
The BJP won five seats including Kolkata Port, Ballygunge, Chowrangi, Entali and Belighata.
In 2021, TMC won all 11 seats in Kolkata region.
After Mamata Banerjee was defeated in Nandigram in Purba Medinipur by her former student Suvendu Adhikari, she returned to Bhabanipur and won the seat by defeating BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal by a margin of 58,832 votes.
This time Kolkata recorded a huge turnout. While in 2021 the city (North Kolkata and South Kolkata) recorded a voter turnout of 62.3%, this year 88.59% of the polling was recorded in the districts.
Political analysts said that on one hand, people came out in large numbers to vote because of the SIR, but the anti-incumbency factory played a major role in increasing voter turnout in other cities and urban agglomerations including Kolkata.
“Unlike rural areas, majority of voters in big cities like Kolkata are not dependent on government schemes. Anti-incumbency and SIR influence have played a major role here,” Biswanath Chakraborty, a political analyst, told the media.
