Sitalkuchi firing one of the reasons BJP lost in Bengal

Slogans like "2 Mai, Didi Gayi" (May 2 Didi is losing) and "200 Paar" (we will cross 200 seats) reverberated in Bengal during the BJP's campaigning for the assembly elections. Now, on counting day, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has answered them, according to News18 report.

On the face of it, the TMC had its backs to the wall this time given public resentment and anger against the party on the issues of cut-money, corruption and lawlessness and many senior leaders deserting her for the BJP. But the Trinamool managed to turn the sentiment around on the face of Banerjee, projecting her as the sole woman fighting the "big BJP men from Delhi", invoking Bengali pride, the insider-outsider card and rallying the women and Muslim voters in its favour. The BJP, which had the momentum in Bengal since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, failed to tap the anti-incumbency sentiment against Banerjee, given a sheer lack of organisation on the ground. As a result, the BJP which led in 121 assembly segments in Bengal in 2019, and thought the anti-incumbency push will take it beyond 147-mark, had dropped below 78 seats in a major blow to it.

There were two clear turning points in the election. One was Banerjee's injury sustained in Nandigram on March 10 after which she began her campaign on a wheelchair and blamed the BJP for the trauma. Though the BJP made light of her injury as a "sympathy-gaining drama", the image seems to have worked on the ground especially amongst the women voters with Banerjee "the fighter Didi" being projected as the one who was under attack. Her iconic image of sitting alone on a dharna in Kolkata for several hours after a one-day ban by the Election Commission further reinforced the perception that she was under attack from all sides and had been left alone.

The second major turning point was the Sitalkuchi firing incident on the day of the fourth phase of polling when four Muslim boys were killed in poll-related violence in firing by central security forces. This incident gave Banerjee a chance to rally the Muslim voter behind her and she went to Sitalkuchi to give the message that she was the sole saviour of the community. In doing so, the impact of the Left-Congress-ISF combine in Muslim-dominated districts like Malda, Murshidabad and Dinajpur was completely negated and the TMC for the first time has won a record number of seats in these districts.

In fact, an audio tape released by the BJP of a conversation between the CM and the TMC candidate in Sitalkuchi to "play politics over the bodies", as BJP described it, only worked in the favour of the Trinamool Congress as its message reached the Muslims that voting for the Third Front meant bringing the BJP into the state. Though the BJP made claims that it has committees on 85% of the booths in the state and had made rapid progress in building up its organisation in Bengal, the same did not reflect in the villages where an odd BJP flag and poster was present but there was a lack of local leaders. The TMC instead was a well-oiled machine, specialising in the "last-mile delivery of the vote" when it mattered while the BJP did not have the boots on the ground to encash the disillusionment that many people felt with the Trinamool.