News Analysis India

Tag: Bengal elections

  • Mamata Banerjee likely to contest from Bhabanipur constituency, sitting MLA vacates seat

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal agriculture minister and veteran TMC leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay vacated the Bhabanipur assembly seat on Friday, paving way for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to contest bypoll from her old bastion, party sources said.

    Banerjee, who lost the recently concluded polls from Nandigram, needs to get elected to the assembly within six months to hold on to the chief minister’s chair.

    TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, however, refused to divulge anything on Banerjee’s re-election, and said the party will come up with a statement at an appropriate time.

    Chattopadhyay tendered his resignation to Assembly speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay in the presence of senior party leader and his ministerial colleague Partha Chatterjee.

    Before leaving for the state legislature, he told PTI that he would happily abide by the party’s decision.

    ALSO READ: End the cycle of vendetta politics in West Bengal

    “I am going to resign as the MLA of Bhabanipur seat. This is my decision as well as that of the party.

    I am happily abiding by it,” the agriculture minister said.

    The speaker, on his part, said, “Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay has resigned from the Bhabanipur seat voluntarily.

    I have accepted his resignation letter after confirming that he has taken the decision on his own without any pressure or threat.”

    A section of party members speculated that the septuagenarian politician might be fielded from the Khardah seat, where bypoll has been necessitated following the death of party leader Kajal Sinha due to COVID-19.

    There are others who claimed that Chattopadhyay might be nominated to Rajya Sabha.

    The veteran TMC leader said, “We must work to ensure victory of our leader Mamata Banerjee from a seat, as Bengal can prosper and move forward when she is at the helm.

    As there were talks within the party about her election to the assembly, and I was tapped in this regard, I readily agreed.”

    He, however, clarified that he isn’t too keen on Upper House nomination.

    Asked if he would quit as a minister, Chattopadhyay said, “I will follow the party’s instructions.

    However, I am not aware of any such rule, which entails my resignation from the ministerial post.” Chattopadhyay, who had earlier represented the Rashbehari assembly seat, contested from Bhabanipur this year and defeated BJP’s Rudranil Ghosh by a convincing margin.

    Banerjee had won the seat in 2011 and 2016.

  • RSS mouthpiece criticises BJP for fielding Trinamool turncoats

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA:  The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has lashed out at the BJP over its decision to open the party’s doors to the turncoats from the Trinamool Congress without studying their popularity among the voters of the state. 

    Analysing the saffron camp’s dismal performance in the recently-held Assembly elections in West Bengal, the RSS, in its mouthpiece, Organiser, also listed the Centre’s mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis and the effectiveness of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s welfare schemes as the reasons for the saffron camp’s defeat in Bengal. 

    The RSS, in a two-day workshop held in March in Ahmadabad, had opposed BJP’s decision to welcome TMC turncoats. The party’s national leadership did not pay heed to the RSS’ objections back then, a senior leader of the saffron camp’s West Bengal chapter said.

    An article published in the Organiser, titled Bad Experiments in Bengal, said, “The beneficiaries created by TMC through different schemes, some BJP’s wrong steps like welcoming TMC leaders without judging their strength and impact of Covid-19 on last two phases (of the elections) resulted in such decimated performance.’’

    The RSS also pointed out the vote swing from the fold of all key parties, including the BJP, Left Front, and Congress, in favour of Mamata caused a blow to the BJP’s expectations. “Only 2% reduced vote share of BJP and 5% votes of Congress+Left shifting to TMC made all the difference,’’ the article said. 

    The RSS mouthpiece also criticised the BJP for not effectively managing the support from SC/ ST communities. “There are four major districts where BJP did not get a single seat like in Jhargram (4 seats), South 24 Pargana (31 seats), Purba Bardhaman (16 seats), and Kolkata (11 seats). In Jungle Mahal area where there are total 51 seats, BJP got only 17 seats.

    It clearly shows that BJP did not manage effectively the support of SC and ST. From  the Matua community also, the BJP did not get full support and it is still a matter of research how this community voted but it is certain, every community gave the priority of benefits received from TMC overall caste and religion-based appeals. It is only the Jalpaiguri region where BJP performed well, got 21 seats out of total 27 seats.”

    The report noted that the pandemic may have affected the BJP’s performance in the last two phases. “BJP performed poorly in last two phases, maybe due to Covid-19 pandemic. If we compare with 2019 situations, there are 65 seats where BJP won in both elections, 12 seats where BJP lost in 2019 but won in 2021 but 56 seats where BJP won in 2019 and now lost in 2021.”

  • Visva-Bharati announces lecture on reasons of BJP’s defeat in Bengal polls, cancels later

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: A virtual lecture on the reasons behind the BJP’s setback in the West Bengal assembly polls, to be organised by Visva-Bharati university next week, was cancelled hours after it was announced on Wednesday, varsity sources said.

    The lecture, “Why BJP failed to win West Bengal Assembly Elections” by Niti Aayog Joint Advisor Prof Sanjay Kumar, was part of the Visva-Bharati Lecture Series and Vice- Chancellor Prof Bidyut Chakrabarty was scheduled to preside over the programme.

    A notice inviting people to attend the lecture to be held at 4 pm on May 18 via Zoom platform was posted on the central university’s website earlier in the day.

    However, the authorities withdrew the notice, a copy of which is with PTI, from the website in the afternoon, sources said.

    A brief message – “Due to some unavoidable circumstances, this 35th lecture is treated to be as cancelled for the time being” – had been later added to the notice which is also not available on the website now.

    Visva-Bharati officials are not available for comment on the issue.

    The decision to hold a lecture on such a political issue by the university founded by Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore did not go down well with a section of the ashramites and the faculty.

    Veteran ashramite and Tagore family descendant Supriyo Tagore said, “Such blatantly political discourse should not be held in an institution like Visva Bharati associated with the ideals of Rabindranath.”

    Tagore founded Visva-Bharati in 1921 and it became a central university in 1951, 10 years after the bard’s death.

    A member of Left-leaning Visva Bharati University Faculty Association said, “The lecture on finding the reasons behind the BJP’s defeat by a Niti Aayog official would have compromised Visva-Bharati’s image as a liberal, independent institution.”

    The lecture showed the political leanings of the present management of the university, he claimed, saying that it is good that the programme was cancelled.

    In the West Bengal assembly election, the BJP bagged 77 seats while the Trinamool Congress secured a landslide victory winning 213 of the 292 constituencies that went to polls.

    Election was countermanded in two seats due to the death of candidates.

  • All 77 BJP MLAs in West Bengal to have central security cover

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: All the newly elected 77 BJP MLAs in West Bengal are being provided security cover by central paramilitary forces in view of potential threats to them, official sources said on Monday.

    They said the Members of the Legislative Assembly will be secured by armed commandos of the CISF and the CRPF.

    The Union Home Ministry has approved the cover after taking into cognisance a report prepared by central security agencies and the inputs of a high-level fact finding team of officers that was sent to the state by the ministry in the wake of post-poll violence in the state, including that against the workers of the BJP, they said.

    Sixty-one MLAs out of the 77 will be covered under the lowest ‘X’ category and the commandos will be drawn from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), as per fresh orders of the MHA, they said.

    The rest are either enjoying the central security cover or will be covered under the next higher category of ‘Y’.

    Fifty-year-old Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari is already a ‘Z’ category protectee of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), they said.

    “These persons face potential threat in the wake of post polls scenario in the state and hence they need to be secured,” a senior officer said.

    A number of other candidates, including some turncoats, who contested the assembly polls from the BJP ticket will also continue to have the central security cover for some more time, they said.

    The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged as the main opposition party in the state, winning 77 seats in the 294-member house in the recently concluded polls where the TMC led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee formed the government.

    While there can be 3-4 armed commandos under the ‘X’ category, the configuration increases to 6-7 under the ‘Y’ cover and the ‘Z’ category brings in about 6-9 commandos for the protectee.

    Both the CISF and the CRPF have specialised VIP security units in their establishment and they collectively provide security to over 140 personalities, ranging from central ministers, MPs and senior bureaucrats.

  • Bengal polls debacle: With mere 5.47 per cent vote share, Left stares at existential crisis

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: A graffiti on a central Kolkata wall said “Long live Marxism”.

    Someone with a wry sense of humour had cut out the word ‘live’ and scrawled ‘dead’ on top.

    The results of last week’s counting of votes cast in the crucial West Bengal elections seemed to bear this out.

    Not only had the combined Left parties drawn a blank in polls to the assembly which they had run with an overwhelming majority for 34 long years, their vote share had dwindled to a mere 5.47 per cent in 2021, down from 30.1 per cent in 2011 when they lost the elections to Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s juggernaut.

    In the clash of the titans where the TMC was in a straight fight with the BJP in most constituencies, the once all-powerful Left seems to have been squeezed into oblivion.

    Even in the 2016 assembly elections, the Left parties had managed to get 25.69 per cent of the votes polled.

    “We lost because other factors like anti-incumbency were overridden by people’s anxiety to halt the BJP from capturing Bengal,” admitted Nilotpal Basu, CPI(M) Politburo member and former Rajya Sabha MP.

    Analysts said that the TMC’s win was in part powered by a gain of at least five per cent of the popular votes which normally go to the Left, as electors decided to ignore issues like corruption to exercise their franchise against the BJP.

    “In 2019, when the BJP won 18 Lok Sabha seats and bagged about 40 per cent of the votes cast, the Left and the Congress had ceded grounds to the rightist party, this time the Left votes went to the TMC,” said Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary of the CPI(ML)- Liberation party which came out with a ‘No Vote to BJP’ campaign.

    Bhattacharya, an alumnus of the Indian Statistical Institute and his team have been researching on the just- concluded elections at their office in Creek Row area.

    The sharp drop in votes polled has dismayed CPI(M) cadres, and the central leadership of the party will review the election results to analyse what went wrong and to chart out a future course of action.

    Even Jadavpur, long dubbed ‘Leningrad of the East’ which has elected a Left candidate in every election since 1967, except once, fell before the Trinamool onslaught.

    To rub in the humiliation, veteran CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty lost by a margin of nearly 40,000 votes to a little-known TMC debutante in a seat, where it was said that the Left “would win even if the party fielded a lamp post with the hammer and sickle sign on it”.

    “The Kolkata city voting patterns show that people decided to stop the BJP and they chose to gravitate towards the TMC it is a limited mandate from the Left-liberal- secular opinion against the BJP,” Basu said, adding “the ruling party should not consider this as their vote.

    As Leftist forces consolidate, it will regain this vote share”.

    However, independent analysts do not believe getting back vote shares will be a simple task for the Left parties led by the CPI(M).

    “The crisis the Left is facing is deep rooted. Its falling vote share is just an indicator of a deeper malaise,” said Rajat Roy, political analyst and member of the think tank Calcutta Research Group.

    The fall of the Left is underlined by the fact that just 17 years ago it was the third-largest party with 59 MPs of the 543-strong Lok Sabha, with 35 seats coming from West Bengal alone.

    Since then, its sway over the electorate has dwindled to a situation where it has no MPs from West Bengal in the Lok Sabha.

    CPI(M)’s vote share alone has fallen in recent years from 19.75 per cent in the 2016 assembly polls to 6.34 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when a whispering campaign “chup chap padma phoole chaap” (secretly vote for BJP) saw a section of its voters swung to the BJP as a reaction to TMCs attitude towards the Left.

    In 2021, the CPI(M) managed to garner just 4.73 per cent of votes polled as the pendulum shifted towards the TMC.

    “The once revolutionary party which rode to popularity on the back of peasants’ movements and trade union militancy has been living in a cocoon for long. Since the 1990s, instead of mass contact movements, it has depended on party apparatchiks like Laksman Seth of Haldia and Anil Basu of Hooghly to deliver votes. Their decline now defines the Left’s hold over voters,” Roy said.

    The CPI(M), which stormed into power in 1977 following a popular upsurge against then chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray’s brutal suppression of the Naxal movement, industrial stagnation and emergency excesses, had also failed to live up to people’s expectations with its inability to create jobs, encourage industry and by lowering public education and healthcare standards.

    However, insulated from the two major political upheavals that shook India in 1990s the Mandal agitation and the Ram Mandir stir and bereft of strong opposition, Bengal remained a unique Left citadel, even as the Communism crumbled in Eastern Europe and embraced capitalism in China.

    The rise of Mamata Banerjee’s strident street-smart politics in the late 1990s and 2000s, which used people’s movements against eviction of hawkers in Kolkata, agitations against land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram, severely challenged the Left.

    “The connect with ordinary people, which was their (Leftists) hallmark snapped. CPI(M) leaders were living in a world of doctrinaire, while the lower cadres were reaping the gains of office,” Roy explained.

    By 2011, Banerjee had breached the ‘Red fortress’ and by 2021, the Left was misreading its voters’ mind, Bhattacharya claimed.

    “The traditional Left completely misread the situation in this election. They should have seen the significance of the battle for Bengal. Here, we had a party backed by RSS, a ‘fascist’ organisation, out to capture Bengal. Yet they concocted slogans that equated the BJP and the TMC, and called them ‘two sides of the same coin’. This did not convince even their own people,” he said.

    The CPI(ML)-Liberation leader felt that class concerns where the “poor saw the BJP as a rich man’s party”, gender concerns raised by comments on “love Jihad and Romeo squads” and “issues of Bengali identity” united voters against “attempts to polarise them communally”.

    The Left’s electoral alliance with the newly-floated Indian Secular Front led by a conservative Islamic cleric, known for controversial comments, too did not go down well with Leftist liberals.

    “The tie-up with Abbas Siddique simply backfired on them,” said Bhattacharya.

    The Left, analysts believe, now has to reinvent itself and go back to mass contact movements to stay relevant.

    Cadres of Leftist students’ unions, who fanned out in districts of south Bengal to campaign for CPI(M)’s new faces such as JNU Students Union president Aishe Ghosh and party’s youth wing state president Minakshi Mukherjee, are expected to lead the mobilisation needed to bring back it into reckoning.

    “Our young candidates have got relatively good vote share. They are our hope,” Basu said.

    According to collated data based on Election Commission figures, the Left had registered its best-show in south-east Bengal where it received nearly nine per cent of the popular votes.

    This is also the region where most of the young faces were fielded.

    “Let us see what lessons the Left draws from its rout. We have to step up our role,” said Bhattacharya.

    While Roy added, “the key is mass connects, no party can survive without mass movements.”

  • Bengal: Several new faces among 43 ministers likely to be sworn-in on May 10

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Several fresh faces and a number of trusted lieutenants of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be sworn-in as ministers at the Raj Bhawan in Kolkata on Monday, a source in the Trinamool Congress said.

    Altogether 43 ministers, including 19 ministers of state, are likely to take oath, the source said.

    One of them will be Amit Mitra, who was the finance minister under Banerjee in her two previous terms since 2011, but was not made a candidate in the recently concluded election due to his ill health.

    However, the TMC supremo wants Mitra back at the helm of the finance department and has plans to make him a member of the assembly through a by-election, the senior leader of the ruling party said.

    Though the TMC has won with a thumping majority in the recently held assembly election, Banerjee herself lost from Nandigram and she too needs to win a bypoll.

    Veteran leaders such as Subrata Mukherjee, Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Jyoti Priya Mallick, Moloy Ghatak, Aroop Biswas, Dr Shashi Panja and Javed Ahmed Khan will be made cabinet ministers, the source said.

    There will be 24 cabinet ministers.

    New faces in the council of ministers will include former IPS officer Humayun Kabir, former Bengal Ranji captain Manoj Tiwari and Siuli Saha, he said.

    While Kabir will be among 10 persons who will become ministers of state (independent charge), Tiwari and Saha will feature in the list of nine MLAs who will be sworn-in as ministers of state.

    Banerjee is also scheduled to hold the first Cabinet meeting on Monday after the swearing-in ceremony, he said.

  • Homemaker stands out amid BJP drubbing in Bengal, readies for MLA stint

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The BJP might have fallen flat on its ambition to rule Bengal, but the party found the most unlikely winner in a 30-year-old homemaker of humble means who scripted a stunning victory, trouncing her nearest TMC rival by a margin of over 4,000 votes.

    A mother of three, newly elected Saltora MLA, Chandana Bauri, who followed in her husband’s footsteps and joined the saffron camp around five years ago, had never imagined she would ever be called upon to represent her constituency.

    As a party worker, she worked every day, cycling her way to various parts of the constituency from her home in Saltora, Bankura district, trying to “strengthen the organisation and ensuring that people in need get requisite help”.

    “I always thought contesting an election involved a lot of money, and that it wasn’t really a possibility, given the fact that we are not well-off.”

    “My husband is a mason, and the little that we save goes into funding my children’s education and meeting our daily expenses. However, when the local BJP leadership wanted to field me from Saltora, I realised that my work would speak for me,” Bauri said.

    Asked what prompted her to take the plunge into electoral politics, the newly elected MLA said “atrocities perpetrated by TMC activists” was a major reason behind her decision to contest the elections.

    “During the last panchayat elections, many from the BJP were not given a chance to file nomination, the legislator said.

    She alleged that party men and women were physically stopped from making an attempt to join the electoral fray and said, “I just wanted to do something to put an end to this anarchy.”

    She also stressed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s welfare initiatives, such as measures taken under Swachh Bharat Mission, were other reasons for her joining the saffron camp.

    Born in a humble family in Barjora area of Bankura, Bauri lost her father just two days before her Class 10 board exams began.

    Her mother did odd jobs to feed the family.

    “My mother weathered many a storm, washed dishes, sold cow dung cakes to eke out a living. I have four more siblings, and she made sure none of us went to bed hungry. She happens to be my inspiration. Women are capable of doing great things. I have learnt that from my mother and grandmother,” she said.

    Bauri, who still lives in a one-room mud hut, also thanked her husband and in-laws for being supportive.

    “I would wake up early, cook food and leave for mandal committee work. My in-laws and relatives, who live nearby, took care of my household when I was away. There are so many people who have helped me in my journey and I cant be grateful enough to them,” she told PTI.

    The BJP MLA said she wanted her children two daughters and a son — to pursue higher education and find jobs that would not just benefit them but touch other people’s lives, too.

    Talking about her plans to develop Saltora, she pointed out that the place still lacks proper roads.

    “I will definitely work towards developing the infrastructure in Saltora. Proper roads and clean drinking water top my list of priorities,” the BJP MLA said.

  • After Tathagata Roy lashing out at BJP over Bengal defeat, party veteran summoned to Delhi

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: BJP leader Tathagata Roy on Thursday said his party’s top brass has called him to Delhi at the earliest, a day after he criticised some of the measures taken by the saffron camp’s decision-makers ahead of the assembly elections.

    The BJP pocketed just 77 seats in the just-concluded Bengal polls, with the TMC having bagged 213 constituencies.

    The saffron party had set a target of winning over 200 seats.

    Taking to Twitter, the former governor of two northeastern states — Tripura and Meghalaya — said, “I have been asked by the party’s topmost leadership to come to Delhi ASAP. This is for general information.”

    Roy, during his interaction with reporters on Wednesday, had claimed that “unwanted elements” from the TMC was inducted into the BJP ahead of the assembly polls, and leaders having no idea or understanding of Bengali culture and heritage were made to helm the election campaign in the state.

    On the migroblogging site, he also wrote, “In the depths of my frustration I think of my icons Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay. How they had suffered and compared to that what is my suffering! Such thoughts, such suffering will not go in vain. Never!”

    In a no-holds-barred diatribe aimed at state BJP minders and the Bengal unit chief, he further tweeted, “Kailash-Dilip-Shiv-Arvind (KDSA) foursome have dragged the names of our respected Prime Minister and Home Minister through mud and have sullied the name of the biggest political party in the world. Sitting atop Agarwal Bhavan of Hastings (W Bengal BJP’s election headquarters).”

    On Tuesday, Roy, known for his controversial remarks and tweets, had said that three new female entrants in the BJP from the tinsel town, who got defeated by big margins, are “politically stupid”, raising several eyebrows.

    “What great qualities were these women possessed of? Kailash Vijayvargiya, Dilip Ghosh & Co must answer (sic),” he had tweeted.

    Reacting strongly to Roy’s jibe at his industry colleagues, Kanchan Mallick, an actor who fought on a TMC ticket and won the Uttarpara seat, “It is insulting for them even though they belong to my rival party,” he said.

  • ‘Not even 24 hours since I took oath as CM, central teams have started arriving’: Mamata lashes out at BJP

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said 16 people have lost their lives in post-poll violence in the state, and announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for their families.

    Banerjee, during a press meet here, also said that her government will provide jobs of home guard to one family member each of all five persons killed in CAPF firing in Cooch Behar’s Sitalkuchi area last month.

    She further said that a CID team has initiated a probe into the incident of firing in Cooch Behar that took place when the voting exercise was underway for the fourth phase of assembly elections, on April 10.

    “At least 16 persons – mostly from the BJP and the TMC and one of the Samyukta Morcha — died in post-poll violence. We will pay a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to their family members. Our government will also provide jobs of home guard to the next of kin of Sitalkuchi victims,” she said.

    Taking a swipe at the BJP, the CM said that the saffron party was yet to come to terms with people’s mandate.

    She accused central leaders of inciting violence in the state.

    “Not even 24 hours have passed since I was sworn-in as the CM, and letters, a central team have started arriving. This is because the BJP has not yet reconciled to the mandate of common people. I will request the saffron party leaders to accept the mandate,” she told reporters.

    “Please allow us to focus on the COVID situation. We do not want to engage in any squabble,” she added.

    A four-member fact-finding team of the Union Home Ministry, tasked with looking into reasons for the post-poll violence in West Bengal, arrived in the state on Thursday.

    Led by an additional secretary of the ministry, the team visited the state secretariat and held a meeting with the home secretary and DGP, sources said.

    The team, which will also assess the ground situation in the state, is likely to visit several areas in the city as well as South 24 Parganas, Godkhali, Sunderbans and Jaggadal, they said.

    The ministry had on Wednesday sent a terse reminder to the West Bengal government to submit a detailed report on the post-poll violence and to take necessary measures to stop such incidents “without any loss of time”.

    It has also asked West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar to give a report on the law and order situation in the state, particularly the violence that took place following the election results on May 2.

    Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that 16 people have lost their lives in post-poll violence in the state.

    The BJP has alleged that TMC-backed goons have killed a number of its workers, attacked women members, vandalised houses and looted shops.

    Rejecting the charges, Banerjee had Wednesday said violence and clashes were taking place in those areas where BJP candidates emerged victorious in the assembly polls.

    Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress MLA Firhad Hakim hit out at the Centre for sending teams instead of COVID-19 vaccines.

    “They should send vaccines first, that’s the responsibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We are grieved that some people have died, and action will be taken against the culprits.”

    “But, what will happen to the inoculation process which is stalled because of the vaccine crisis?” Hakim said.

  • Bengal’s champion sports trio, Dinda, Tiwary, Bose hope to recreate on-field magic in politics

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Hitting sixes, bowling unbeatable bouncers or scoring hattricks have been their forte, but now Bengal’s iconic sportsmen – Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Dinda and Bidesh Bose- hope to replicate their magic in the game of politics.

    Having won their debut electoral battles, the trio are all excited about “making a difference” in their new innings.

    Mohun Bagan’s legendary leftwinger Bidesh Bose and former India batsman Manoj Tiwary won in Uluberia East and Shibpur respectively for the ruling Trinamool Congress that swept the West Bengal Assembly elections winning 213 of the 292 seats.

    Former tearaway Bengal pacer Dinda, who played under Tiwary for several years, on the other hand won it for BJP which garnered 77 seats in the West Bengal Assembly Polls.

    There was a fourth former sportsperson, BJP’s Kalyan Chaubey, who too was in the poll fray.

    However, the former India goalkeeper lost to TMC heavywieght Sadhan Pande, three years after he had lost the Lok Sabha election fight to Mahua Mitra in his political debut at Krishnanagar.

    Dinda, who contested from Moyna in Tamluk of East Medinipur district defeated TMC’s two-time sitting MLA Sangram Kumar Dolai by a thin margin of 1260 votes.

    “You can call it like getting five wickets in a debut match,” Dinda, who is Bengals second most successful bowler after Utpal Chatterjee, with 420 first-class wickets in just 116 fixtures, told PTI.

    Pitted against the TMC heavyweight Dolai, who had won the previous 2016 Assembly Polls by more than 12,000 votes, his “debut match” was not an easy task.

    “Like in sports, it was ‘sheer hardwork’ that clinched it for me,” the 37-year-old, who retired from all forms of cricket earlier this year, said.

    “Everyday I would go to one village after another and talk to people, understand their problems and give them my promise to make a difference for them,” he said.

    “They would say they had hardly seen the ruling MLA visit them for even five minutes in his five-year tenure.”

    “So what if my party has not won. The work will not stop. Maybe I won’t be in power but I can take the people’s voice to the Assembly and work for them,” Dinda said.

    Lack of a proper medical facility in Moyna is Dinda’s main concern.

    “The two government hospitals here are in a bad shape, often people die on way to Kolkata. My priority is to create a state-of-art medical facility here.”

    A former India player and one of the finest batsmen to have emerged from Bengal in the post-Sourav Ganguly era, Tiwary is committed to work 24×7 for people of Shibpur.

    “Politics is not an easy place for a newcomer from a different sphere. I had campaigned door-to-door in Shibpur locality. They were convinced by my honest intentions. I want to be a politician who will be available for his people 24×7,” Tiwary, 35, said.

    “As of now, tackling the COVID-19 crisis will be our first priority. Then we will go step-by-step.”

    “So is it curtains for his cricketing career? “Not yet. I will maintain my fitness. There is going to be no Ranji matches for a year. I will wait and see how it goes. But I don’t rule out playing a few more games for Bengal.”

    For the star footballer of the 1970s, Bidesh Bose, it is about listening to his “head coach” Mamata Banerjee’s instructions in scoring a winning goal as he defeated BJP’s Pratyush Mondal and Abbasuddin Khan of Indian Secular Front.

    In Uluberia Purba where Muslims comprise nearly 34 per cent of the electorate and where BJP had launched a high pitched campaign, Bose faced a stiff challenge from both Khan and Mondal but the rookie politician stayed grounded.

    “When Didi first had offered me this seat in March, I didn’t know how to go about it, how do I live up to her reputation.”

    “Then when I personally went there, met the people and heard their problems, I realised that this is altogether a different pitch. It’s a completely different Maidan. But it was just like another game,” Bose said.

    “I’m not a man of politics so I will play the game as my coach and assistant coach instruct. We have got good roads but what’s missing is good sanitation and drinking water. There’s a bit of conflict with this being a Panchayat area. This will be my main priority at this moment,” he concluded.