THE STATE OF BENGAL AFTER TMC'S WIN

REASONS FOR TMC's VICTORY (1)

"Fighter didi factor"- Mamta Banerjee projected herself as 'fighter didi', taking on the might of the powerful and cruel people sitting at the centre. The aim was to draw attention towards how a lone woman sitting on a wheelchair was fighting against the centre for people's rights.This factor, doubtlessly, brought in a huge number of women voters in favour of Didi. According to a report in The Wire, the total number of voters in the state were 7.32 crore, among whom 3.73 crore were male, and 3.59 crore female. Mamta Banerjee's appeal to the women electorate and her past policies like Kanyashree, Rupashree, Swasthya Sathi etc. made women firm supporters of Didi.

REASONS FOR TMC's VICTORY (2)

Little to offer from BJP"- The BJP campaign basically hinged onto 2 factors- anti incumbency and alleged muslim appeasement leading to communal rifts. The BJP failed to pitch any of its "'manifesto promises" during its rallies as opposed to TMC's welfare schemes. When the question of local MLAs or the Chief MInisterial candidate was raised, the BJP failed to answer. Thus, despite lavish rallies, the BJP failed to convince the people to vote for it. Hence, the Trinamool won seats even in areas where candidates or the party itself was unpopular because of its intact organisation.

REASONS FOR TMC's VICTORY (3)

"Consolidation of Minority Votes"- During her rallies, especially while she moved towards the minority dominated areas, like Murshidabad, Malda, Uttar Dinajpur, Didi encouraged the citizens 'to look past their differences and vote as one' (against BJP). She essentially advocated against the division of minority votes to the Left or Congress or the ISF. Muslim consolidation was noticed in these areas which evidently helped the TMC win 18/20 and 8/12 seats in districts of Murshidabad and Malda respectively as they voted out of fear of BJP winning and implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Bengal.

"Righting the Wrongs from 2019 Lok Sabha Elections" TMC's vote dip jumped by 5% this year. It managed to turn its fortune in the Jungle Mahal area, by winning significant chunks in the Bakura, Purulia and Jhargram districts and also in the Northern districts of Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar, which the BJP won almost entirely in the 2019 general elections.Besides, The Trinamool managed to hold onto its bastion in the south ensuring to improve its 2019 numbers.

POST POLL VIOLENCE

Violence and politics go conjointly in West Bengal. Since the 90's, political parties have been hiring goons and using violence as a means to establish power and control in the state. This year, three days following the TMC's grand victory in the Assembly Elections, reports of violence started flooding in from various parts of the state. Both parties claimed to have their workers attacked by the opposition. As of latest reports at least 16 people lost their lives due to political clashes; out of which 6 were claimed to be BJP supporters and 4 were claimed to be working for TMC. Amidst all this, the saffron party took over social media, portraying the episode as communal, with its senior leaders explicitly naming communities and spreading fake news in the process.

POST POLL VIOLENCE #factcheck

With reference to Alt News, an old video of a mob attacking police in Odisha was made viral as evidence of post-poll violence in West Bengal. Another video of TMC's post-result celebration with people dancing and brandishing swords in the air on TMC's "Khela Hobe" campaign tracks in the background were also claimed to be fake by CID West Bengal. An image of mob violence was fact-checked by Alt News and it was found to be from March 30,2018 from "A police patrol party in Raniganj, Burdwan, where clashes and incidents of arson were reported following a Ram Navami procession," as reported by the Hindustan Times in 2018. A particularly afflicting case of a 20-year old girl being gangraped and murdered allegedly by "Rohingya and Bangladeshi Jihadis" is also not true since it has no connections with the post-poll violence.

POST POLL VIOLENCE

Violence has been and is taking place in Bengal in the qame of politics, since a very long time .There have been cases of political hooliganism and lynching in Bengal after the election result declaration and both sides had to face casualties of their actions, but that does not justify using fake news to create differences among the people.