After over a month of voting – staggered across eight phases and held under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic – results for the West B...
After over a month of voting – staggered across eight phases and held under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic – results for the West Bengal Assembly elections will be out on Sunday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, Trinamool Congress and a combine of the Left parties, the Congress and the Indian Secular Front were in contention for the state’s 294 seats. The majority mark is at 148 seats.
Emboldened by its performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has made a serious bid for a victory, with top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, campaigning heavily and encouraging defections from the Trinamool Congress to dislodge Mamata Banerjee and her party, which has ruled the state since 2011.
Building upon a wave of anti-incumbency sentiment against Banerjee’s government, the BJP has projected itself as the only option for the people of Bengal to get out of what the saffron party says is a cycle of corruption and repression by the TMC leadership. Modi and his lieutenants have promised to build a “Sonar Bangla [golden Bengal]” if voted to power.
On the TMC front, Banerjee led the charge, calling the challenge from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party as one between the insiders, that is...
