Saffron surge in West Bengal: Five seats where BJP made big inroads

Kolkata, June 04: The BJP stormed to power at the Centre with a thumping mandate, but it was the saffron party's performance in West Bengal that left many surprised. The TMC wrested power from CPM about a decade and a half ago, and now it the BJP which is giving a stiff challenge to Mamata Banerjee led party in West Bengal.

Factionalism in the once formidable Left Front, and the Congress, helped the BJP to emerge as an aggressive opposition force in Bengal. Now, BJP is in second spot and it all began last year when the saffron party edged past the Congress and the Left Front in the panchayat elections, and won 7,000 odd seats in three-tier panchayati raj institutions.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 18 out of 42 seats in West Bengal, which was a multi-fold increase from its tally of only two seats in 2014 elections. The party's vote share also zoomed to 40.25 percent in 2019 from 16.8 percent in 2014.