Mamata Banerjee’s juggernaut rolls on convincingly in Bengal

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has stormed back to power in West Bengal with another two-third majority decisively beating back BJP’s all-out assault led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah’s stewardship.

Defeating all odds, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), led by party supremo Mamata Banerjee, coasted to a comfortable and credible majority in West Bengal, won 213 seats, bettering its performance of 211 in the outgoing Assembly.

While Ms Banerjee lost her own seat, Nandigram, her party’s performance elicited opposition congratulations from across the country.

The TMC supremo who despite sustained a leg wound at Nandigram during electioneering on March 10, carried on campaigning on wheelchair after hospitalisation for two nights, virtually single handedly steered the TMC into the massive victory, even as the BJP had deployed its entire resources, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah to defeat her.

“Bangla chai nijer May”- Bengal wants its daughter- as the millions of voters gave her right to rule for another five years and rejected the “ Sonar Bangla” as BJP had promised if elected to power for the first time.

In a stinging rebuff to rivals BJP, Left-Congress- ISF who had united against her, Ms Banerjee scripted history on when she returned to power with a record win in elections to the West Bengal assembly.

By late Sunday evening, it was clear that the TMC was on its way to secure a massive majority in West Bengal.

Fighting incumbency, the Trinamool Congress has a solid two-thirds majority having bagged a total of 213 seats.

When compared with the results of the 2016 Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made remarkable gains. It has won close to 75 seats from just three in 2016 and got about 38 per cent of the vote.

But the BJP was fighting to win, not come in second, so the outcome is a major setback for the party, given the vast amounts of money and resources deployed, with the prime minister, home minister, party chief, and sundry other party heavyweights addressing numerous rallies with intemperate rhetoric.

Addressing the media Ms Banerjee, while thanking the people for voting for the TMC for the third time in power since 2011, said the voters chose to have a government with a doubleton figure in the assembly and rejected the “ double engine” government of BJP.

Accepting the verdict of Nandigram people for her defeat by 1957 votes to BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari Ms Banerjee said, “Don’t worry about Nandigram, I struggled for Nandigram because I fought a movement. It’s okay. Let the Nandigram people give whatever verdict they want, I accept that. I don’t mind.

“It is the victory of the people of Bengal, the victory of democracy. Bengal has saved India today. This landslide victory came after fighting against several odds -- the Centre, its machinery, its agencies. This victory has saved humanity,” the TMC supremo said.

The chief minister said her government will provide free vaccines to the people of the state.

“I urge the Centre to give free vaccines to every Indian. To vaccinate 140 crore, people, Rs 30,000 crore is needed to be spent. I will sit in protest before the Mahatma Gandhi statue here if the Centre does not accept this demand,” Ms Banerjee said. (UNI)