Trinamool increases vote share and seats in Bengal

Kolkata, May 19: Contesting on its own, Trinamool Congress today put up a stunning victory in West Bengal winning 211 of the 294 seats, bettering its 2011 tally of 184 seats.

An analysis of the results indicated that the party's vote percentage also increased compared to 2011 Assembly poll and 2014 Lok Sabha elections. According to Election Commission's statistics, TMC this time got 44.9 per cent of the total votes polled in comparison to 39 per cent in 2011 and 39.03 per cent in 2014.

The CPIM-led left front and Congress which had formed an alliance to fight TMC failed to put up a creditable performance. CPIM's vote percentage fell to 19.7 per cent this time from 29.58 per cent in 2011 Assembly election.

In 2014 Lok Sabha poll, the party had captured nearly 23 per cent vote. CPIM this time won only 26 seats while its other Left Front constituents RSP won 3 seats, Forward Bloc-2 and CPI-1. The combined vote share of the Left Front was also reduced to nearly 24 per cent from 41 per cent in 2011. The Left Front had won 62 seats in 2011 Assembly poll, of which CPI(M) had won 40 seats.

Congress, however, bettered its vote percentage this time to 12.3 compared to 8.91 per cent in 2011 when it had contested in alliance with TMC. In 2014 Lok Sabha poll, Congress's vote share in the state was 9.6 per cent. BJP, on the other hand, increased its vote percentage to 10.2 compared 4.06 per cent secured in 2011 Assembly election and managed to capture three seats.

In 2014 Lok Sabha poll, BJP had secured nearly 17 per cent vote. Poll analysts said although BJP's vote percentage was reduced from the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, the opposition did not benefit out of it. Commenting on the poor performance of the Left-Congress combine, Poll analysts said it appears that there was transfer of votes from the Left to Congress, but the Congress voters did not transfer their votes to the Left candidates.

On whether Congress-left alliance failed, CPIM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra said, "I do not think so. To understand the reason, we need to do a deep assessment of the results".

Reacting to the alliance's poor performance, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, "A defeat is a defeat. I don't want to give any excuse for it. I don't want to go into any blame game. The people believed it is better to vote for Mamata Banerjee," he said.

PTI