Electoral Dynamics in West Bengal: Trinamul’s Hold in the South and BJP’s Gain in the North

Political observers claimed on Wednesday that members of the minority community contributed to the TMC's victory in Muslim-majority areas in the southern portion of West Bengal, but the division of their votes helped the BJP win in the northern part of the state.

Minority voters have 16–18 Lok Sabha seats in a state where they make up about 30% of the electorate, making them a desirable voting group for all political parties.

There are sizable Muslim populations in a number of north and south Bengali parliamentary constituencies, including Raiganj, Cooch Behar, Balurghat, Malda North, Malda South, Murshidabad, Diamond Harbour, Uluberia, Howrah, Birbhum, Kanthi, Tamluk, Mathurapur, and Joynagar.

Based on the separation of minority votes between the TMC and the Left-Congress combination, the BJP was able to hold onto Balurghat, Raiganj, and Malda North, according to one expert.

"As anticipated, the TMC did well in minority belts in south Bengal. However, the Left-Congress coalition put up a strong fight in several north Bengali seats to take a larger share of the minority vote, according to political expert Biswanath Chakraborty.

The Left-Congress alliance candidates received more votes than the margin of victory of the BJP nominees in each of the three seats.

In Raiganj, BJP's Kartik Chandra Paul received 5,60,897 votes, while TMC's Krishna Kalyani, his closest challenger, received 4,92,700, according to the results released on Tuesday.

Paul prevailed with 68,197 votes in favor. Ali Imran Ramz, the candidate for the Left-Congress coalition, received 2,63,273 votes.

Sukanta Majumdar, the state unit president of the BJP, received 5,74,996 votes in Balurghat, while Biplab Mitra of the TMC received 5,64,610. It was 10,386 votes in favor. Joydeb Siddhanta, the Left-Congress nominee, received 54,217 votes.

Khagen Murmu of the BJP defeated Prasun Banerjee of the TMC by a margin of 77,708 votes to retain the Malda North seat. In the section, the combined votes of the Left and Congress were 3,84,764.

Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the TMC and chief minister of West Bengal, expressed her annoyance by saying that the BJP was aided in winning three seats in north Bengal by the Left-Congress coalition.

However, the TMC was able to unseat the BJP in the Cooch Behar seat.

But Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress state president and five-term sitting MP of Baharampur Lok Sabha, losing the coveted seat was the cherry on top for the TMC.

By a wide margin of more than 85,000 votes, voters in the so-called "Congress fortress" chose former Indian all-rounder and Trinamool Congress candidate Yusuf Pathan over Chowdhury.

Due to Chowdhury's loss in Baharampur, one of the state's supposedly final Congress strongholds, the Trinamool Congress had its flag altered and flown outside of the area for the first time.

Minorities in south Bengal voted for the TMC to stop the BJP's progress, and West Bengal's ruling party won all of the Muslim-majority seats there with the exception of the Tamluk and Kanthi Lok Sabha seats.

Minority leaders claim that Muslims in West Bengal, who hold key seats in the Lok Sabha, were leaning toward the TMC led by Mamata Banerjee because they saw it as a credible force as opposed to the Left-Congress coalition.

The Indian Secular Front (ISF) has chosen to go it alone, making it harder for the Left and the Congress to win over minority votes. This is because the saffron party is taking advantage of a number of divisive topics, including the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the Ram Mandir.

Mohammed Salim, the state secretary for the CPI(M), who lost the seat in Murshidabad, stated, "It would have been better had ISF been with us."

After Assam and Kashmir, West Bengal has the third-largest Muslim electorate in the nation.

The TMC secured 29 of the state's 42 parliamentary seats, the BJP won 12, and the Congress gained 1.