TMC, Left apprehend shift in their votes to BJP in West Bengal

Ravi S.Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 17

The ruling Trinamool Congress and the Left apprehend a possible shift in their traditional votes toward the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal, and are making efforts to prevent it during run up to the final round of Lok Sabha elections in the state.

Internal surveys and reports collected by the TMC suggests of a real threat of a section of its voters, and  a section of Left supporter having sided with the BJP in the six phase of elections already conducted. The threat has increased with regard the last round of election scheduled for May 19 after successful road show of BJP president Amit Shah on last Tuesday.  

“A shift of 10 per cent of Left and TMC votes could bring the TMC’s tally somewhere between 24 and 30,” a TMC leader said this week.

 The party had bagged 34 out of 42 seats during peak of its popularity in the last parliamentary elections. Its in-house calculation is that the party has now no room to expand, and the viable option is to keep its support base intact.

The TMC had polled about 40 per cent of the votes polled, the Left about 30 per cent and the BJP about 15 per cent.

CPI (M)’s Polit Bureau member and former Rajya Sabha MP from West-Bengal Nilotpal Bansu said: “Things have gone out of control in the state because of communal polarisation between the TMC and BJP,” Basu said, adding that the scenario means that, the possibility of a shift in votes cannot be dismissed.

With regard vandalism of statue of 19th century social reformer of West-Bengal Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the CPI (M) leader said although the BJP goons went on a rampage in the wake of Amit Shah’s road show , it was unclear who damaged the statue.

The CPI (M) has demanded of the Election Commission to probe the road show procession, make the video-graph regarding the road show public to establish the truth on who vandalised the statue. The CCTV footage installed in the college where the statue was installed had become dysfunctional about a month back before the incident.