West Bengal Polls: 3 Reasons Why TMC Pulled Off a Big Victory

In short, the Trinamool Congress reversed most of its faults from the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

(Photo: Naman Shah/The Quint)

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) registered a big win over its rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the West Bengal Assembly elections on Sunday, 2 May. While the party came to power for the third time with over 200 seats in the 294-seat Assembly, the BJP was restricted to less than 100 seats.

In short, the TMC reversed its faults in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, leading to consequent electoral gains. And the BJP did not manage to hold on to its strongholds, it also did not make a dent in the traditional TMC bastions.

Meanwhile, in the Nandigram seat, where Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee was contesting against her protege-turned-BJP-leader Suvendu Adhikari, the battle went down to the wire. While Mamata Banerjee was declared winner of the seat first, in a last-minute twist, Suvendu Adhikari was said to have won the constituency. Banerjee has said that she will go to the court against alleged foul play by the Election Commission (EC).

This draws the curtains on a month-long, eight-phase election that saw mass rallies amidst a raging pandemic.