The Trinamool Congress on Sunday pulled off a historic landslide in the just-concluded assembly polls by crushing the BJP’s hopes to form its first-ever government in Bengal. Such was the Tsunami in favour of Mamata Banerjee that three out of four BJP MPs failed to win an assembly election.
Those biting the dust were Union Minister Babul Supriyo, Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta and Lok Sabha MP Locket Chatterjee. The only parliamentarian, who narrowly won the Dinhata seat was Nisith Pramanik as he defeated his Trinamool rival by merely 69 votes.
Babul Surpiyo, who won the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Asansol, was fielded by his party to try his luck in the assembly elections from Kolkata’s Tollygunj seat. Supriyo, a minister in Narendra Modi government at the Centre, lost his seat by 50,000 votes.
Locket Chatterjee, who won the 2019 parliamentary polls from Hooghly, lost from Chunchura to the Trinamool Congress’ Asit Mazumdar. Swapan Dasgupta lost his Tarakeshwar seat to Trinamool’s Ramendu Sinharay.
Reacting to his defeat, Dasgupta tweeted, “I thank the voters of Tarakeshwar for the support they extended to me. I lost narrowly but am thankful to the BJP leadership & workers for all the support. I shall remain engaged in the public life of Bengal. We fought a good fight & raised vital issues that will endure.”
Supriyo took to Facebook to write an angry post by refusing to accept the people’s mandate and calling Mamata Banerjee’s a ‘cruel lady.’ Supriyo had written, “Neither will I congratulate Mamata Banerjee… nor do I wish to say I ‘respect’ the people’s verdict… sincerely think people of Bengal made a historic mistake by not giving BJP a chance… by electing this corrupt, incapable, dishonest government and a cruel lady back to power.”
He, however, had to delete his Facebook post later.
The Trinamool had won 211 seats in the 294-seat Bengal assembly in 2016. It seems they are set to improve their 2016 tally.
