West Bengal’s assembly election has changed the political dynamics; the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory has not only security but has also emerged victorious in the Muslim-dominated districts.
Out of 43 assembly seats encompassing three districts, the BJP has risen from only eight seats in 2021 to now winning 19 seats. At the same time, the unexpected reduction has been seen with TMC, previously winning 35 seats now coming down to 22.
Murshidabad, which has around 66% of the Muslims, has also seen a drastic cut down. In 2021, the party backed 20 out of 22 seats here, and this time it has come down to only nine. It is imperative to note that the SIR exercise in this area has approximately witnessed 7.8 lakh names deleted.
“While the TMC has argued that the deletions disproportionately affected its support base, the electoral data suggests that the fragmentation of votes among Congress, CPI(M), and AJUP amplified the damage,” political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty said as reported by Siasat.com.
In Raninagar, the Congress moved ahead of the TMC by a narrow margin, and the CPI (M) had a significant vote share, dividing the share of votes that was once a consolidated TMC-backed minority vote.
The similar picture unfolded in Malda, with improvements in the BJP’s result. However, the TMC here emerged weak with a splitting in Muslim votes. In the meantime, the Congress, which has historic reinforcement in it, managed only limited success in this. In South 24 Parganas and Birbhum, the BJP won the throne.
The results this time show a significant shift in the winning pattern, where TMC earlier had managed to emerge victorious against the BJP.
“That strategic voting behavior appears to have weakened, with sections of Muslim voters returning to the Congress and Left, while others gravitated towards emerging regional alternatives like AJUP and the Indian Secular Front,” a senior TMC leader said.
