BJP records historic double digit win in Bengal breaching Mamata's stronghold

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a whopping 18 seats, touching an impressive double figure in Bengal for the first time.

The lotus has finally bloomed in Bengal - the birth place of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) founder Shyamaprasad Mukherjee.

With a historic rise in vote share, the saffron party on Thursday breached Mamata Banerjee's citadel with a massive surge across the state.

The BJP won a whopping 18 seats, touching an impressive double figure in Bengal for the first time.

Prominent BJP candidates who have won are Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, Union ministers Babul Supriyo and SS Ahluwalia.

While Babul Supriyo won the high profile contest in Asansol against TMC's Moonmoon Sen with a 51 per cent vote share, Dilip Ghosh won from Medinipur with a margin of over 87,000 votes.

"We have achieved more votes than we had expected. People have given them a befitting reply. Let me share this, not just the BJP but even other party supporters have cast vote for us," Dilip Ghosh said, reacting to the results.

While the ruling TMC lost 12 seats compared to its tally in the last elections, the BJP jumped from just two seats to 18 (win + leads), a sharp gain of 16 seats.

The party has won Darjeeling, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, Raiganj, Balurghat, Malda North, Ranaghat, Bongaon, Barrackpore, Hooghly, Bankura, Bishnupur, Purulia, Jhargram, Medinipur, Asansol, Bardhaman-Durgapur. From a meager 17 per cent, the BJP's vote share has jumped over 40 per cent, one that has seen a huge share of vote transfer from the Left to the BJP, analysts said.

While the BJP won mostly in North Bengal and the tribal belt of Jungalmahal, the TMC retained its bastion in South Bengal and areas adjoining Kolkata.

The party won the prestigious Kolkata North, Kolkata South and Jadavpur seats.

While TMC veterans Sougata Roy, Sudip Bandopadhyay, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Kalyan Banerjee retained their seats, Dinesh Trivedi lost the keenly contested Barrackpore seat to his former party colleague and BJP candidate Arjun Singh.

Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee too won his Diamond Harbour seat.

Despite a spike in its vote share from 39.05 per cent to 43.4 per cent, the sharp decline in seats has shocked many in the TMC.

Reacting cautiously, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted, "Congratulations to the winners. But all losers are not losers. We have to do a complete review and then we will share our views with you all. Let the counting process be completed fully and the VVPATs matched."

Mamata Banerjee did not address the media as is customary after announcement of results and chose to continue monitoring the situation till late in the evening.
Thursday's result once again proved that the BJP has emerged as the principal opposition party against the Trinamool Congress regime in West Bengal, replacing the Left which has drawn a nil this time.
The Congress, which had won four seats in 2014 have been reduced to just one with party's Murshidabad strongman Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury retaining his Baharampur seat for a record fifth consecutive time.

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