Lok Sabha Election Results 2024: In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee magic holds!

West Bengal had the highest turnout in the 2024 general elections Often even hovering around 80 per cent over seven phases How does one interpret voters stepping out in such huge numbers in the scorching heatGeneral perception is it conveys a mood to dislodge the establishment Only the establishment in West Bengal equally means Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos BJP at the Centre and Mamata Banerjeersquos TMC with solid hold at the groundlevel in the stateThat is ever since Mamata held back BJP to a mere 77 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections while Modirsquos campaign was aimed at crossing 200 coined the same way as ldquo400 paarrdquoHe was looking to expand his partyrsquos influence in the state post their jump in general elections from three to 18 seats between the 2014 and 2019general electionsFrom Mamatarsquos end the 2021 shadowcampaign was effectively managed by political aide Prashant Kishor and his team at the consultancy firm IPACWhile these polls were still on Kishor mdash now a politician in Bihar mdash stuck his neck out on record to say the BJP will deliver a major surprise emerging as the single largest party in West BengalThatrsquos not how West Bengal voted Itrsquos semisafe to suggest they stepped out of homes in such large numbers to check the rise of BJP instead Voting resolutely in favour of Mamata over ModiDuring the early phase of elections gauging body language and potentially divisive commentsspeeches by members of the BJP including PM Modi himself mdash it appeared the ruling party was playing catchup sensing a dip in their tallyThe one state they were doing well in at this point though mdash and they knew this then mdash was in fact West Bengal Because the early phases of polls were held in northern Bengal seats such as Cooch Behar down to Darjeeling that BJP currently considers its strongholdThe western part of the state was where it had equally swept in 2019 They couldnrsquot retain these parts West Bengal was being eyed by the Modi campaign as a prime catchment areamdashcashing in on the positive trend established in 2019Pollsters were similarly forecasting a major gain for BJP in West Bengalmdashat least upwards of 25 seats even touching 31 from 18 out of 42 The same pollsters had ascribed BJP numbers way past 100 in the Assembly electionsItrsquos hard to predict West Bengal Let alone convincingly decipher Mamatarsquos magic Apart from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra West Bengal hit Modi the hardest in 2024 with BJPrsquos tally dropping to 12Was Indiarsquos only woman chief minister confident of this victory Why else would she choose to technically remain in the INDIA bloc yet share not a seat with the partners Left and the Congress in the electionsConsider that she even brought in cricketer Yusuf Pathan to cut the votes of Congress and defeat its state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in Beharampur She had already poached Shatrughan Sinha from the Congress whorsquos delivered again from Asansol West Bengal was going to be Mamatarsquos battleground aloneThe key to which has always been the bellwether constituencies of Kolkata where she swept again along with her chief campaigner and nephew Abhishek Banerjee picking up the Diamond Harbour seatIf the 2024 election results are to be interpreted as a vote for a stronger Opposition then Mahua Moitra among the fiercest voices in Parliament got a return ticket from Krishnanagar despite having been evicted from the floor of the house in the last sessionLike all humans West Bengalrsquos heart was on the Left once That was until Mamata pretty much finished off the party in 2011 after its 34 years of continuous rule How did she do it By being more Left than the Left mdash opposing private industries in the state starting with Singur for an electoral issueContrast this with Mamata of 2024 with the TMC only second to BJP in electoral bond donations mdash providing it enough money essential to take on the excessively loaded party at the Centre The street muscle was always therePolitical consultancy firm IPAC minus Prashant Kishor still manages Mamatarsquos campaign You have to see for yourself IPACrsquos sophisticated modules datacrunching social media prompts vast army of volunteers and massconnect programmes to sense how seriously and scientifically TMC takes the electionsSuch as ways to counter Sandeshkhali for instance where a local Muslim don Shahjahan Sheikh and his men were accused of atrocities against womenBJP turned this into a national issue bearing Mamatarsquos women vote bank in mind and fishing out a HinduMuslim card IPAC was working furiously to counter this when we visited their office during the elections Guess who won Basirhat where Sandeshkhali is in West Bengal after all TMC18Seats BJP won in WB during 2019 LS poll