The Trinamool has held its own amid the turmoil

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses the Provincial Council in Kolkata on December 2, 2024. | Photo Credit: PTI

Dissatisfaction and anger with the government does not mean that voters voted for the ruling party. This has been very evident in the past few years in West Bengal politics, the latest example being the recently concluded Assembly polls.

Despite protests over the rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, the ruling Trinamool Congress won votes in all six Assembly seats without much opposition from the Opposition.

The ruling party not only retained the five seats it had won in 2021 but also wrested away Madarihat in north Bengal, considered a BJP stronghold, a seat that the ruling party in the State had never won before. In other seats like Haroa in North 24 Parganas and Sitai in Cooch Behar, the Trinamool Congress candidate’s margin of victory was more than 1.3 lakh votes.

For more than two months, Kolkata and its surrounding areas have witnessed unprecedented protests with thousands of people on the streets demanding justice for the rape and murder of a doctor. Anger was directed at the State government for failing to provide security for a female doctor in a government institution, the suspect being a community police volunteer, and the alleged cover-up of the crime on the part of the police and hospital management.

Protests brought the government to its knees when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was forced to transfer the Kolkata Police Commissioner and officials of the State health department.

The question being talked about in political circles is how the Trinamool Congress managed to come out unscathed from the protests. In addition to the success of the Trinamool Congress, the bypolls show the failure of the Opposition parties to harness the anger and discontent among the people. Although citizen groups prevented political parties from joining the protests, the groups were unable to organize a meaningful movement, and their intervention came well before the street protests ended.

For several years, despite law and order issues and several scams, the vote share of the Trinamool Congress has increased. The idea that the Trinamool Congress government would collapse under the weight of the scam and its divisive conflict between the new leadership and the old believers did not work against the opposition.

The Trinamool Congress has held the electorate together through financial incentives and high-level political governance. For the BJP, prospects look bleak as its vote share has declined after the 2021 Assembly polls. The BJP has lost all the polls held since then, including the one held in July this year. In the Lok Sabha elections, the Trinamool Congress increased its number to 29, while the BJP’s seats decreased to 12. the ruling party and the decision in favor of the ruling party 6-0 was an unexpected conclusion.

The Left Front-led CPI (M) and the Congress, which contested the elections separately, also failed to make any mark on the police. For more than a decade, both the parties have appeared confused about defining their political rivals in the State – be it the BJP or the Trinamool Congress.

Credit must also be given to Ms Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress leadership, which allowed the protests to run their normal course for nearly 100 days. He held meetings with the protesting doctors, and did not take hasty measures, even after being insulted on one occasion when the protesters refused to meet him and left him waiting.

Although the results show the electoral superiority of the Trinamool Congress, to think that the protests surrounding the RG Kar incident did not serve any purpose would be wrong. For decades, the Kingdom has been politically divided, with no civil society. Demonstrations and protests against the heinous crimes have given people the courage to take to the streets and raise their voices against the State and the ruling party. This very act and defiance may go a long way in shaping the society and politics of the State in the future.

shivsahay.s@thehindu.co.in