UPDATED: May 10, 2021 09:40 IST
Hattrick CM Mamata during the election campaign, at a rally in Jalpaiguri
IT was dusk on May 2 by the time news came that Mamata Banerjee had created history yet again. With a hat-trick of victories, and having secured more than 200 seats for the second time, her party, the All-India Trinamool Congress (TMC), had surpassed all expectations. The enduring image of this election will be of the wheelchair-bound Mamata, a wounded tigress who fought alone against the entire might of the BJP, including the prime minister. Anti-incumbency, allegations of corruption and minority appeasement, sexist tauntsMamata braved them all, and in the end her party was the only one left standing, winning 213 of the 292 seats (elections to two seats have been deferred). By bringing the relentless BJP juggernaut to a halt, her status in Bengal has been upgraded from Didi to that of a Durga. Mamata has exposed the claims of the Modi-Shah duo’s reputed invincibility as a me
Mamata Banerjee loses to Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram
May 03, 2021
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Mamata can still be sworn in as chief minister, but she has to win a by-election to continue holding the office. After a close fight, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee finally lost to Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram by a margin of 1,957 votes.
While the counting went down to the wire as expected, Banerjee was pitted against her protégé turned bête noire Suvendu.
Despite her loss, she has shaken the Adihikari citadels of Purba Midnapore, and Paschim Midnapore that many, including the BJP, thought were impregnable. This justified the big-ticket induction of the Adhikari into the BJP and his rising prominence in the party.
Ground Report From Bhabanipur: Not A Safe Seat For Trinamool, Thatâs Why Mamata Banerjee Shifted To Nandigram
by Jaideep Mazumdar - Apr 25, 2021 06:56 PM
Mamata Banerjee s previous seat not safe for Trinamool anymore
Snapshot
Mamata Banerjee can always explain away a defeat in Nandigram to a host of external factors.
But she would be hard-pressed to explain a likely Trinamool defeat from Bhabanipur, her former constituency.
Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjeeâs
declaration on 18 January this year that she would contest from Nandigram took many by surprise.
Many construed it as a âmasterstrokeâ by Banerjee and surmised that by taking the fight to the BJP camp, she is sending out a forceful political message.
ISSUE DATE: May 3, 2021
UPDATED: April 23, 2021 20:41 IST
Feisty fighter: Mamata Banerjee on dharna in
Kolkata against the EC’s 24-hour campaign ban on her
The Gandhi statue on Mayo Road has been one of the preferred protest sites in Kolkata for political parties and civil society groups. On April 13, Mamata Banerjee chose the venue to mark her dissent against the Election Commission (EC). No war cries, no sloganeering, the West Bengal chief minister sat near the statue for several hours, apparently engrossed in painting. Senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders camped some distance away in solidarity.
A day before, when the EC barred her from campaigning for 24 hours for allegedly making provocative remarks during electioneering, a furious Mamata had taken to Twitter to challenge the order as “undemocratic and unconstitutional”. But at the Gandhi statue, she was a picture of restraint. The EC had ticked Mamata off on two counts, for allegedly making a community-specific sp