Didi emerges unscathed from Sandeshkhali

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, June 4

Belying PM Narendra Modi’s assertion that the BJP would sweep the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, it was the Trinamool Congress (TMC) led by Mamata Banerjee that called the shots by bagging 29 of the state’s 42 seats. The BJP’s tally came down to 12 from the 18 seats it had won in 2019. In 2019, the TMC had won 22 seats.

Banerjee, who refused to have any truck with either the Congress or the CPM, led the campaign from the front with her focus on welfare schemes that her government had launched in the last three years, especially the ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ cash incentive scheme. Ahead of the Lok Sabha poll, the Mamata government had increased the monthly allowance from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 for women in the general category, while for those in the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories, the amount was revised from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200. While campaigning in Bengal, Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders had kept the focus on the allegations of corruption against the TMC, citing the teachers’ recruitment scam and coal and cattle smuggling. Some of the TMC leaders, including ministers Partha Chatterjee and Jyotipriya Maallik, are in prison in connection with these cases.

Allegations of sexual assault on women in the island of Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas also failed to make an impact with the voters as TMC candidate Haji Nurul Islam, was ahead with a massive margin of 3.33 lakh votes from Basirhat, of which Sandeshkhali is a part.