TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee visits Kalighat Temple in Kolkata after her party’s win (PTI Photo)
BHUBANESWAR: The Trinamool Congress’s sweeping victory in West Bengal assembly election, led by the firebrand Mamata Banerjee, comes as a comforting development for Naveen Patnaik-led BJD in Odisha. Naveen spoke to Mamata over telephone and congratulated her for her party’s landslide victory, the chief minister’s office said.
“Had the BJP won in the neighbouring state, its ripple effect would have been felt here. The saffron party would have been far more aggressive in Odisha where it dislodged the Congress as principal opposition party in the last assembly election and aspires to halt Naveen’s juggernaut,” felt Asima Sahu, a professor of political science at Ravenshaw University.
This despite the fact that the BJP used its full might to unseat her. Union home minister Amit Shah was the chief architect of the BJP campaign. He along with PM Modi and BJP chief JP Nadda together addressed over 100 rallies in the state.
Not just that, a host of Union ministers and BJP chief ministers were also a part of the grand BJP campaign to win West Bengal.
To add to her woes, Trinamool leaders dumped Mamata for the BJP in hordes.
But Mamata Banerjee remained undettered and unnerved.
Seated on a wheel chair after fracturing her leg during filing of nomination in Nandigram, she went about her campaign matching the aggression of the BJP.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an election campaign rally for West Bengal state assembly polls at Barasat, in North 24 Parganas.
PM Narendra Modi, who cancelled his Friday s visit to Bengal, will virtually address a poll rally in the state tomorrow at 5 pm. The Prime Minister was scheduled to address four rallies in the poll bound state but had cancelled them as he would be chairing high-level meetings in Delhi over Covid situation in the country.
In a statement, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said, The Prime Minister has had to cancel his visit to Bengal on April 23, in which he was scheduled to address four rallies across four districts and 56 Assembly constituencies.
West Bengal Election 2021: Bengal votes in the fifth phase today (Representational)
New Delhi:
West Bengal is voting today in the fifth phase of the assembly elections held amid an alarming surge of coronavirus cases across the country.
45 seats are going to polls in the biggest of the state s eight-phased elections. Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Darjeeling and a part of Nadia, North 24 Parganas and Purba Bardhaman will vote today in which a total of 319 candidates, including 39 women are contesting.
Bengal has already voted for 135 seats and after today s voting, results for more than half of its 294 seats will be sealed. High-profile contestants include the Trinamool s Bratya Basu, Gautam Deb and Siddiqullah Chowdhury, and the BJP s Jagannath Sarkar - one of five MPs nominated by the party.
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Bengal polls 2021: Campaign ends for phase three; BJP s Swapan Dasgupta, CPI(M) s Kanti Ganguly in fray
Senior BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta, TMC minister Ashima Patra and former CPI(M) minister Kanti Ganguly are among the 205 candidates whose campaigns for the third phase of elections in 31 seats in West Bengal ended on Sunday evening.
In this phase, elections will be held in parts of rural Howrah, the Sunderban region, the Diamond Harbour and Baruipur belts in the South 24 Parganas, and parts of the Hooghly district. The campaign ended at 5 pm with elections scheduled to be held on Tuesday.