West Bengal election results 2021: TMC garners 47.94% vote share; AIMIM, ISF fail to amass minority support

Delivering on Mamata Banerjee’s promise of hitting a double century in the Assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress won 2010 of the 292 seats that had gone to polls over eight phases. The BJP clinched 76 seats, while Rashtriya Secular Majlis Party and an Independent candidate won one seat each, as per data updated by the Election Commission at 8 am on Monday. TMC is leading in three seats and BJP in one. Polling was countermanded in two constituencies after candidates fell victim to COVID-19. Even though the ruling party powered through to two-thirds majority and clinched a third straight term in West Bengal, Banerjee lost the prestige battle in Nandigram to protégé-turned-rival and BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari.

Following are the vote shares garnered by the parties: Trinamool Congress: 47.94 percent BJP: 38.13 percent CPM: 4.72 percent Congress: 2.94 percent NOTA: 1.08 percent All India Forward Bloc: 0.53 percent All Jharkhand Students’ Union Party: 0.10 percent Bahujan Samaj Party: 0.39 percent Revolutionary Socialist Party: 0.21 percent CPI: 0.20 percent CPI(ML)(L): (0.03 percent) AIMIM: 0.02 percent Janata Dal (United): 0.02 percent Lok Janshakti Party: 0.01 percent National People’s Party: 0.01 percent Indian Union Muslim League: 0 percent Other: 3.67 percent “It’s a victory for Bengal’s people…it’s Banglarjoy’ (Bengal’s victory),” Banerjee told TMC workers, while her party approached the Election Commission with demand to recounting of votes in Nandigram which was rejected. Though the BJP failed in its effort to dislodge Banerjee from power, it’s for the first time that it will be the main opposition party in the state assembly, rising from a measly three seats in 2016 to at least 76 now. It is also for the first time that the Left and the Congress, which ruled the state for decades, will have no representation. Parties such as the AIMIM and Abbas Siddiqui’s ISF, which were seen as having the potential to deal a blow to the TMC’s minority support base, failed to make an impression as the minorities threw their weight behind Mamata Banerjee. The victory for Banerjee, by far the biggest mass leader since the redoubtable Jyoti Basu who ruled West Bengal with an iron fist from 1977 to 2000, will not only help fortify her position in the state but also enhance her standing at the national level where voices from the opposition are getting feeble with time.