TMC

The outgoing Chief Minister has refused to resign. Short on numbers, Banerjee has accused the BJP of ‘rigging’ and claimed that the TMC has won the elections ‘morally’.

Several foreign media publications covered the BJP’s thumping victory, though not without peddling propaganda about the victorious party’s ‘Hindu nationalist’ ideology, ‘Muslim minority under threat’ bogey and falsehoods about the pre-poll SIR exercise.

A decade of quiet, decentralised groundwork by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh reshaped Bengal’s social consciousness and voter behaviour, laying the foundation for the BJP’s historic breakthrough.

It is the BJP’s candidate selection and focus on real issues that propelled the party to 206 seats for its maiden triumph. BJP’s women candidates brought their own grassroots stories, carried pain and yearning to bring change that resonated with Bengali voters.

The anti-BJP brigade has recycled its formulaic ‘Hum hare nahi humein haraya gaya hai’ bogey by casting aspersions on the integrity of the Election Commission, instead of gracefully accepting the Janadesh.