New Delhi, May 5 (IANS) In an overwhelming mandate in West Bengal, electors have categorically expressed their distrust and disappointment with the Trinamool Congress government by voting out its leader, Mamata Banerjee, along with most of her cabinet members from their respective offices, after 15 uninterrupted years in power.

It was for the first time that the BJP registered a victory in West Bengal, which is known as the birthplace of its precursor, the Jana Sangh. Of the 35 ministers in Mamata's cabinet who contested the 2026 West Bengal elections, 22 have been voted out of power, including the outgoing Chief Minister herself.

The verdict against the outgoing Chief Minister was specific, registered in her own neighbourhood of Bhabanipur. Ironically, it was her former aide, Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated her by over 15,000 votes out of a total mandate of close to 74,000 votes. She had lost the 2021 polls to Adhikari by less than 2,000 votes.

The number of her cabinet colleagues defeated in their respective constituencies works out to a staggering 63 per cent. Thus, the voters of West Bengal voiced their choice in a direct rejection of the larger part of the state’s outgoing leadership in what is being termed as a “silent verdict”. Perhaps for the first time in the country, not all political research organisations were able to publish an estimated poll outcome through the exercise known as “exit poll”, citing refusal of electors to share their choice of candidate in several Assembly constituencies.

The voters who stood in queues in the heat and sometimes rain, not just voted against candidates, but overall rejected the core leadership of the Trinamool Congress. However, they refrained from sharing their choice for what is being attributed to fear of reprisal.

In a state where the government faced charges on women's safety, corruption, unemployment, lack of infrastructure, among others, Ministers handling critical portfolios such as Women and Child Development, Industry, Housing, Power, Education, Transport, and Backward Classes, have all been subject to the dissatisfaction of electors. This mandate is thus being considered by analysts as a sweeping, structural rejection of the Trinamool’s governance model by the people of West Bengal.

Among notable faces who lost the election this time, apart from Mamata herself, were ministers Aroop Biswas, in charge of housing and power from Tollygunge seat; noted theatre and cine actor Bratya Basu, heading higher education and school education in Dum Dum constituency. Other ministers included more of Mamata's close confidantes, including Chandrima Bhattacharya from Dum Dum Uttar, Shashi Panja in Shyampukur, Sujit Bose, Bidhannagar, 7 and Indranil Sen.

Also included among ministers losing the trust of electors was Becharam Manna of Singur movement fame from the home turf; Swapan Debnath in Purbasthali Dakshin; Bulu Chik Baraik at Mal; Pradip Mazumdar from Durgapur Purba; Birbaha Hansda, Binpur; Manas Ranjan Bhunia, who lost from his home constituency of Sabang; Moloy Ghatak from Asansol Uttar; and Siddiqullah Choudhury at Monteswar. Still other ministers losing people’s trust were Udayan Guha from Dinhata; Sandhyarani Tudu in Manbazar; Bankim Chandra Hazra, Sagar; Ujjal Biswas, Krishnanagar Dakshin; Snehasis Chakraborty, Jangipara; Srikant Mahato, Salboni; and Satyajit Barman from Hemtabad. Incidentally, Minister for Industry, Commerce, and Enterprises, in the outgoing cabinet, Sashi Panja, lost the Shyampukur constituency to the BJP’s Purnima Chakraborty by over 14,600 votes.

Another minister in Mamata's cabinet, Nirmal Majhi, lost the Goghat seat to the BJP’s Prasanta Digar by a massive over-49500 votes. So did the Trinamool’s North Bengal Development Minister Udayan Guha from Dinhata, by more than 17,400 votes against the BJP's Ajay Ray.

Meanwhile, a member in Mamata’s cabinet and the state President of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, Siddiqullah Chowdhury, lost the Monteswar seat against the BJP’s Saikat Panja by over 14,700 votes. He is also a prominent minority face of the Trinamool Congress.

Joining the list was West Bengal’s Co-operation minister Pradip Majumdar, who lost the Durgapur Purba seat by more than 30,900 votes to the BJP’s Chandra Sekhar Banerjee.

Chandrima Bhattacharya, Environment minister in Mamata’s cabinet, lost the Dum Dum Uttar seat to BJP’s Sourav Sikdar by a margin of over 26,400 votes. The veteran Trinamool leader, who gained the seat from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 2021, ceded it to a new and younger entrant in the poll fray.

--IANS

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