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A decline in vote-share from the 2014 Lok Sabha polls notwithstanding; the BJP ended up with its biggest ever haul in West Bengal Assembly elections. The BJP in the past had won one seat each in the 1999 and 2014 by-polls.
The party won Madarihat (in Alipurduar), Kharagpur Sadar (in Paschim Medinipur) and Baisanabnagar (in Malda). Its ally, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), has won three seats – Kurseong, Darjeeling and Kalimpong – in Darjeeling, taking the total tally of the NDA to six seats.
Dilip Ghosh, the Party’s State President, won from the Kharagpur Sadar constituency on his debut fight, defeating 10-term MLA and Congress veteran Gyan Singh Sohanpal by over 6,000 votes.
Swadin Kumar Sarkar won from Baishnabnagar constituency in the Congress stronghold of Malda that shares border with Bangladesh. He defeated Azizul Haque of Congress by over 4,400 votes.
Both the wins were unexpected to political analysts. The win of Manoj Tigga from Madarihat seat, on the contrary, was expected, owing to GJM support. He won by 22,000 votes against TMC’s Padam Lama.
The party was also the runner up in seven of seats, including Jorasanko in Kolkata, where it gave a tough fight to the TMC. On the flipside, it lost the Basirhat South constituency, won in the 2014 by-polls.
The BJP got 10.2 per cent votes in this election. Including GJM votes, the total vote-share of the NDA was 10.7 per cent, down from 17 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
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