Why red turned into Saffron in West Bengal elections
New Delhi, June 08: Left ruled West Bengal for over three decades and it was around 2000-05 when anti-CPM sentiments began gaining momentum in the state. The Trinamool Congress cashed on this and ousted CPM government, thus began Mamata Banerjee's rule in West Bengal.
And now 15 years after TMC seized power from the Left, an anti-Trinamool section of voters are growing in Bengal and these voters are not going back to the Left, but for the BJP. The vote share trends are a testimony to this. In Lok Sabha elections, from 33.10 percent vote share in 2009, the Left's vote share fell to 22.14 percent in 2014 and further to 6.28 percent in 2019. The BJP's vote share more than doubled - from 17.02 percent in 2014 to 40.25 percent in 2019.
Between 2014 and 2019, both the BJP and the TMC have gained from falling vote share of the Left, but the saffron party gained more. The data clearly shows that the BJP benefited the most from the vaccum created by decimation of the Left by Banerjee's TMC.
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This starling statistic will make it absolutely clear that the BJP gained the most from Left's fall. When we compare 2014 and 2019, the BJP's vote share did not decline in any of the Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. As a mirror image of BJP's performance, the once formidable Left Front's vote share declined in every parliamentary constituency.
What created the road for the growth of the BJP was repression, which first saw voters switch from Left to TMC, and now when they are seeing it continue in TMC's rule, they have been forced to pick the only alternative- the Bharatiya Janata Party.
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The reason for fall of Left was not just because the people became disenchanated with close to four decades of Left rule, but also because of the straying away from core ideological priciples by Left cadres. There was a time when Left and its pro-people and anti-capitalist ideology appealed to people and the leaders also practised them. When people saw Left indulging in same low level tactics to remain in power that the other political parties indulge in.
Factionalism in the once formidable Left Front, and the Congress, also helped the BJP to emerge as an aggressive opposition force in Bengal. For over a decade the CPM has been divided between puritans led by former general secretary Prakash Karat and pragmatists led by Yechury, with the former insisting on no truck with any bourgeoise party, including the Congress, and the latter advocating electoral understanding with all secular forces to stop the BJP juggernaut.
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Now, BJP is in second spot and it has edged past the Congress and the Left Front. From a high of 43 MPs in the Lok Sabha in 2004, the CPM has been reduced to a three-member party in the 17th Lok Sabha.
With the BJP making massive strides, all eyes are now on West Bengal Assembly elections in 2020.