“Highest ever percentage of polling in West Bengal in both Phase I & II since Independence - chunav ka parv, Paschim Bengal ka garv [election season, pride of Bengal]," CEC Gyanesh Kumar has said.
Quote of the day from drama queen - "Central forces are supposed to guard the country's borders ....". (Mamata)
A new kind of frustration was betrayed in the words of Mamata Banerjee's confidant Kunal Ghosh :
"We will win more than 235 seats and the BJP will not even win more than 50 seats".
700 companies of central forces to stay in Bengal after polls.
Around 700 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) will continue to remain deployed across West Bengal after the completion of polling, an Election Commission official said on Wednesday.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, who is up against chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata’s prestigious Bhabanipur in the election’s battle royale, said over 90 per cent of the constituency’s electorate had voted, which was a record for the seat.
The ECINet app showed a polling percentage of 91.62 per cent, which is likely to go up as trends from phase 1 and earlier recent elections show.
In 2021, Bhabanipur had registered 82 per cent voting and 78 per cent in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly said.
“And at that time, the ruling party had put nearly 10 per cent false votes – dead, fake, double, triple entries,” he said. “Today they could manage around 10 false votes, in which there are four-five votes from ward 77. Men were voting in burqas. We caught them also. They fled.
"When I reached there, they raise the slogan of Bangladeshi Muslims – Joy Bangla. That is because I foiled their plot of posting around 2,000 false votes in an hour.”
He thanked IPS officer Charan Singh Meena for teaching the goons a lesson. The ruling Trinamool accused the central forces of intimidating their voters, of beating up women and children.
Most surveys have have bad news for TMC.
A couple of bigger agencies have said they will give their projections for Bengal on Thursday (April 30) evening.
If exit polls predictions come true, one may say the repeated references to Bangladeshi 'ghuspaithiyas' or infiltrators helped the BJP shape a narrative in the TMC bastion. The Mamata regime has been infamous for courting Muslims not by working for the minority community's education and long term developmental measures; but even encouraging wrong doers.
Local residents say even traffic police could not act against those without helmet if they traditional Muslim skull caps. The chief minister did not like flowers to be named 'Krishnakali' or rainbow to be called Ram-dhenu.
Somewhere people - meaning Hindus - had to register their protest.
A conclusion may be drawn that the talk of 'poriborton' or change has kept resonating, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah repeatedly targeting Mamata over corruption and infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims.
Analysts say Mamata Banerjee herself betrayed nervousness in the run up to the polls.
For a leader who built her career in and around Bhabanipur, the constituency has always been more than just another electoral battleground. The Trinamool Congress campaign has leaned heavily on the slogan “Ghorer Meye” (daughter of the soil), but 2026 shaped up in a different manner.
On the polling day, Mamata kept moving from one polling booth to the other. If her presence will influence the voters. Her bitter rival Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury did not miss the 'exception'. And he said Mamata seemed "restless".
This restlessness cannot be display of confidence. “Jodi paren, vote ta amay deben (If you can, please vote for me),” Mamata appealed at rally last week.
Her voice was unusually frail. Whether this was a deliberate emotional pitch or a reflection of political fatigue remains open to interpretation.
On the other side stands Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP’s heavyweight choice and the man who defeated Mamata in Nandigram in 2021. The BJP has avoided celebrity candidates, instead banking on a seasoned political rival with proven electoral credentials.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said voters are casting their vote in Bengal this time in a "fearless atmosphere" that was unimaginable in the past six or seven decades.
Modi, too, asserted that the Assembly election results on May 4 will further strengthen the resolve of a developed India. Many see the possible outcome of Bengal elections as a repeat of 2011 when Marxists were booted out of power and the then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya himself lost.
Suvendu is contesting from two seats - Nandigram and Bhabanipur. The BJP's decision to field Suvendu has perhaps proved a major game-changer in this year's elections especially in the context of perception battle.
Frustration showed in Mamata's face even as she blasted the CEC and the poll observers.
"The atrocities by the central forces are unprecedented. What is happening is not at all free and fair polls," Mamata said after casting her vote at Mitra Institution school in her Bhabanipur constituency.
"Central forces are supposed to guard the country's borders, but instead they are working for a particular party," she said, without naming the BJP.
ends
No comments:
Post a Comment