Day One of rural poll vote count: Trinamul grass looks greener in Bengal's countryside
Telegraph | 12 July 2023
The Trinamul Congress juggernaut rolling home to a thumping victory in Bengal’s countryside registering major gains in North Bengal and Jungal Mahal districts over its prime Opposition, the BJP, emerged as the highlight of the panchayat poll trends in the state.
Till reports last received, trends were available from the 2,582 out of 3,317 Gram Panchayats of the state. While the TMC registered an overwhelming majority in 2,117 GPs, its nearest rival, the BJP had to remain content with control over just 184 GPs. The state’s prime Opposition party struggled to keep its edge over the Left-Congress combine which managed to bag 154 panchayats as per latest figures. While the Congress won 76 GPs and the Left was marginally ahead with 78 wins at the lowest tier.
Translated into the number of seats, out of the 63,219 GP seats which went for polls, the Trinamul had already won 18,590 seats and led in 4,608 more. The corresponding figures for the BJP were 4,479 and 1,277 respectively. While Left-Congress combine managed to win 2,574 seats at the lowest panchayat tier, they were ahead in 1,032 till figures last came in from the office of the state election commission.
While the counting for Panchayat Samiti tier had only begun in some districts on Tuesday evening, the counting for Zilla Parishad seats had mostly remained untouched and the complete picture from these two upper tiers is expected to emerge only late at night and early Wednesday.
Significant win in Bankura
However, results were available for 23 out of the 928 Zilla Parishad seats, all of which were won by the Trinamul either uncontested or by defeating their nearest opposition rivals. One significant win for the Trinamul at the highest tier was that of Sujata Mondal who defeated her nearest BJP rival from seat number 44 in Bankura Zilla Parishad where counting took place on Tuesday since no opposition candidates filed nomination at the Gram Panchayat and Panchayat Samiti tiers. Sujata, the former wife of BJP MP Soumitra Khan, had campaigned for Khan in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and snatched a win for him from Bishnupur before defecting to the TMC two years later.
Trends from 78 out of the 341 Panchayat Samitis which began trickling down on Tuesday evening suggested that the TMC was ahead in 59 of them. While the BJP led in 9, the Left were inching ahead in just two of the panchayat middle tier.
Advantage TMC in North Bengal
Perhaps Trinamul’s biggest shot in the arm was its grassroots performance in some of the North Bengal districts where the BJP had shown significant promise in some of the previous elections in the state. In Cooch Behar, till reports last received the party won and led in 1,111 of the 2,507 Gram Panchayat seats which were up for grabs. The corresponding figure for the BJP was just 410. In Jalpaiguri, the figures for TMC and BJP were 420 and 184 respectively; for Alipurduar 483 and 225; for Uttar Dinajpur: 295 and 101 and for Dakshin Dinajpur 422 and 145.
The latest Gram Panchayat figures from the Jungal Mahal districts of central Bengal revealed that the BJP could also be left licking its wounds in that region. The win and lead figure for the Trinamul in Purulia stood at 1,133 and counting, as against the BJP’s 299 seats. In Bankura, the TMC bagged 708 seats compared to its nearest rival, the BJP’s 241. In Jhargram, another tribal majority district, the Trinamul registered an impressive 537 seat wins as against the BJP’s 100. The corresponding figures for the two parties in the partially forest covered region of West Midnapore stood at 641 and just 22 respectively.
The Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad results in all these districts are unlikely to be any different considering that the voting pattern usually remains uniform for all three tiers in the rural polls.
The saffron party was believed to have made significant grassroots inroads in both the above regions and is admittedly counting on people's support from these areas in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls next year.
Nandigram BJP's silver lining
The only panchayat silver lining for the BJP so far were its results from Nandigram, the stronghold of the local MLA and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari. Of the 17 Gram Panchayats in Nandigram blocks I and II trends were available from 10. While the BJP bagged seven of them, the Trinamul was left with three.
“Grateful to the people for converting Oppn’s ‘NO VOTE TO MAMATA’ campaign to ‘NOW VOTE FOR MAMATA’. With unwavering support to #TrinamooleNaboJowar, we’ll surely have a roaring mandate, paving the way for LS elections. Bengal, I thank you for all the love,” tweeted TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.