Facts and figures: How West Bengal fared in 2004, 2009 & 2014 general elections

As alliances are being stitched nationally to halt the BJP juggernaut, the Left Front and the Congress are yet to announce an alliance for the polls which many say is being done with a pinch of salt.

Representational Picture (AFP)

2004 elections: The Left front's CPM got the lion’s share of 26 seats with a vote share of 38.6% votes.

2009 elections: Seats won by TMC: 19 – Vote share 31.2%. Became the largest party to get into Manmohan Singh’s coalition government.

2014 elections: TMC stomped to victory by snatching 34 out of the allotted 42 seats with a 39.4% vote share.

New Delhi:  The political environment in West Bengal has always been tempestuous and this time around it’s the Bharatiya Janata Party which has vowed to make inroads in the eastern state with renewed energy. Mamata’s Trinamool Congres is trying to shrug off the threat posed by the saffron party but some believe the results this time can possibly confound political pundits. The Lok Sabha elections in 42 constituencies of the state will take place in seven phases from April 11 to May 19. Akin to Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh will also undergo voting in seven phases. The Lok Sabha polls in 2014 had taken place over five phases in Bengal. In the 2009 general election, the voting had been held over three phases in the state. Bengal has a track record of poll violence and booth capturing and the elections spanning for 40 days has not impressed many from the Trinamool camp even as the BJP has welcomed the schedule. It must be recalled that there were six phases each for the Assembly elections in both 2016 and 2011. As alliances are being stitched nationally to halt the BJP juggernaut, the Left Front and the Congress are yet to announce an alliance for the polls which many say is being done with a pinch of salt. Let us look at how the state has performed in the previous general polls Highlights of 2014 elections:

• TMC stomped to victory by snatching 34 out of the allotted 42 seats with a 39.4% vote share. The CPI (M) looked as a pushover getting two seats with the BJP also looking out of sorts with two.
• The TMC not only made a clean sweep in its stronghold in south Bengal districts, winning 30 out of 31 seats.
• Congress managed to get 4 parliamentary seats.
• Congress's vote share in the state was 9.6 per cent.
• The Left recorded its worst performance since Independence winning two seats with 23 per cent vote share.
• The BJP bagged 17.06 percent vote share with two seats.
• Owing to Narendra Modi's wave, the BJP's vote share jumped by 11.14 per cent.

  Highlights of 2009 elections:

• To battle the Left came an alliance of TMC and Congress.
• Seats won by TMC: 19 – Vote share 31.2%. Became the largest party to get into Manmohan Singh’s coalition government.
• Seats won by Congress: 6 – Vote share: 13.5%
• Seats won by CPI(M): 9 – Vote share: 33.1%
• RSP and AIFB both got 2 seats each with a vote share of and 3.6, 3.1% respectively.
• IND bagged 1 seat accounting 3.1% vote share.
• Others got 3 seats and 12.5% vote share.
• Left lost 7.5% of its vote-share while TMC's share increased by 10.2%.

  Highlights of 2004 elections:

• The Left front's CPM got the lion’s share of 26 seats with a vote share of 38.6% votes.
• TMC was decimated and could win only in 1 seat accounting 21.4 votes.
• The Congress bagged the second position with 6 seats and getting 14.6% of the votes. It doubled its seats from its last outing.
• TMC chief Mamata Banerjee was the only person from her party to retain her seat; she won from Kolkata South with a drastically reduced margin of a little over 98,000 as against the 2.14 lakh plus votes she polled in 1999.
• RSP, CPI, AIFB got 3 seats each and 4.5, 4, 3.7% vote share respectively.

Published at : 12 Mar 2019 02:54 PM (IST)

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