KOLKATA: The BJP, which had a stellar rise in the Jangalmahal area in West Bengal since 2019, faced a decline in support base in 2024 Lok Sabha polls. While two Lok Sabha candidates from Bankura and Jhargram lost to Trinamool, the party could not even ensure leads from the six assembly constituencies it had won in 2021.
In the 2021 assembly poll, the BJP could wrest nine assembly segments in Jangalmahal area comprising Purulia, Jhargram and Bankura.During the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, it lost from Balarampur, Joypur and Kashipur assembly in Purulia and Saltora, Chhatna and Raghunathpur in Bankura. The breather in the Jangalmahal area came only from Baghmundi, where it managed to gain lead despite losing the assembly seat in 2021.
“The BJP had started losing its support base since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Meanwhile we started working extensively among the people in these three districts. That has helped us increase our support in the area,” said Tanmay Ghosh, Trinamool Congress’ spokesperson said.
In Purulia, BJP could wrest five assembly seats from the Trinamool in the 2021 assembly poll. The margin for the four assembly segments were however thin, ranging between 4,000 and 7,000 votes. In Balarampur, BJP won marginally by 500 seats. In the Panchayat polls, the Trinamool managed to increase seats at the gram panchayat. At the 2023 panchayat poll, Trinamool’s vote share in Purulia increased by 12%, while the BJP’s vote share in the gram panchayats nearly halved from 2018 levels.
Jhargram, which had seen nearly 35% increase in the BJP’s vote share in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, witnessed a decline in votes share in the 2021 assembly polls. Its vote share in 2019 Lok Sabha polls was at 44.56%--nearly 2% higher than what it got in 2018 panchayat poll for the district. In the 2019 assembly polls BJP’s vote share came down further across seven assembly segments to 37.15% in 2021. In the 2023 Panchayat poll, the party’s vote share for gram panchayat seats came down further to 12.81%.
BJP’s minister Subhas Sarkar who won from Bankura with a margin of nearly 1.75 lakh votes in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, received . In the 2021 assembly polls, BJP managed to win in four out of seven assembly segments including Sarkar’s hometown Bankura. However, the BJP’s vote share dipped by 6% from 2019 to 2021. In the 2023 panchayat poll, its votes dipped further to 17.64% in the district.