From 2019 to 2024, TMC gains 28 assembly segments in LS election
Times of India | 8 June 2024
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress now leads in 192 assembly constituencies and BJP in 90. While the Congress leads in 11, CPM leads in just one assembly seat in the 294-member assembly, the analysis of Lok Sabha results has revealed.
While this number is a slight dip for Trinamool from the 211 it had secured in 2021 polls, it has witnessed a 17% rise in seats compared to 2019 when it had led in 164 seats.
The BJP, five years ago, was leading in 121 seats. Thus even as BJP’s tally of 90 seats will be slightly better than the 77 it secured in 2021 assembly polls, it will be lower than the 112 it had led in 2019. Congress led in nine assembly constituencies five years ago. This year, they lead in 11.
In this Lok Sabha election, TMC has bagged 29 seats from the state, compared to 22 in 2019. The BJP, which had won 18 seats in 2019, dropped to 12. The Congress, which had two seats in 2019, has won one Lok Sabha seat this time.
Trinamool has performed its best across South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Birbhum, where it swept almost all seats, with its worst coming from East Midnapore where it leads in just one (Patashpur) of 14 seats. The party will also be worried over Malda where it leads in 3 out of 14 assembly segments despite sweeping the district in the last assembly polls.
In Kolkata, TMC trails the BJP in two assembly seats — Jorasanko and Shyampukur. It translates into loss of 51 wards in the city, including a few in south Kolkata’s Rashbehari-Bhowanipore belt.
Compared to 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP, in 2024, could not secure lead from at least 49 assembly segments it was ahead of Trinamool. The biggest setbacks were in constituencies like Barrackpore, Bankura, Jhargram, Midnapore and Asansol.
It managed to retain its grip over north Bengal but its performance was dismal in south. This time, it could not retain the lead in more than 40 seats in south Bengal, where it was ahead of the Trinamool in 2019. It also faltered in eight seats where the party had sitting MLAs.
Fourteen MPs have ensured they have swept all seven assembly constituencies under their Lok Sabha constituencies. Thirteen of them are from Trinamool led by general secretary Abhishek Banerjee (Diamond Harbour). The others are Mala Roy (South Kolkata), Saugata Roy (Dum Dum), Pratima Mondal (Jaynagar), Bapi Halder (Mathurapur), Saayoni Ghosh (Jadavpur), Prasun Banerjee (Howrah), Sajda Ahmed (Uluberia), Kalyan Banerjee (Serampore), Kalipada Soren (Jhargram), Sharmila Sarkar (Bardhaman East), Shatabdi Roy (Birbhum) and Asit Kumar Mal (Bolpur).
The lone BJP MP to lead in all seven assembly constituencies is former High Court judge Abhijit Ganguly, who has trounced TMC nominee Debangshu Bhattacharya in all seven constituencies, including Nandigram and Haldia.
Meanwhile, the Congress and Left, which had no seats in the assembly, can now hope to open their account in the next assembly election. The ISF, which won one seat in the 2021 state elections, has no lead in this Lok Sabha poll.
The 12 constituencies where the Congress-Left alliance is ahead are in three districts — North Dinajpur, Malda, and Murshidabad. The Congress is leading in two assembly constituencies in Raiganj Lok Sabha, four in Malda North, three in Malda South, one in Jangipur Lok Sabha and one in Behrampore. The CPM is ahead in the Raninagar assembly constituency of the Murshidabad Lok Sabha seat.