A 22 % surge in the vote share of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Assembly by-poll in Purba Medinipur district and a 24 % drop in the share of the Left has perturbed the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, Mamata Banerjee. She has acknowledged that a “transfer (of) votes” is taking place from the Left to the BJP. While the TMC has won the by-election in Kanthi Dakshin (South) by a margin of over 42,000 votes, the BJP’s share has gone up from a little over 15,000 votes in the 2016 Assembly elections to nearly 53,000. Following the announcement of the result, the Chief Minister has acknowledged that there indeed is a transfer of vote from the Left to the right.
“I do not think about all these – when ‘Ram’ (BJP) will become ‘Baam’ (Left) and ‘Baam’ will be ‘Ram’. I have said earlier, the BJP and the CPI(M) have an understanding. They transfer votes among each other. The Congress, the CPI(M) and the BJP – they all do that…We do not indulge in such politics,” Ms. Banerjee said on Thursday. Ms. Banerjee, who has an outstanding ability to interpret Bengal’s electoral politics – far better than the analysts – has never indicated so clearly that votes are moving in Bengal from the left to the right.
In the 2016 Assembly polls, the Congress and the Left were in an alliance and bagged the second spot with about 60,000 votes (34.21 %) in Kanthi. It has come down to 10.21 % in 2017, while the BJP’s share surged, which has disturbed the Chief Minister. The TMC’s share has also gone up marginally from 53.71% to 55.89%, which also is “formidable” in a four-cornered fight, the analysts said. Interpreting the nature of the forthcoming challenge from the BJP, Ms. Banerjee appealed to her cadres to “be polite” and to work closely with the people.
