3 quick reasons why Mamata Banerjee clinched West Bengal elections

Of the four states, results to which were declared on May 19, only two witnessed return of the same party or alliance romp back home victorious. While J Jayalalithaa won for the second consecutive term in Tamil Nadu, Mamata Banerjee followed in West Bengal, and quite impressively at that.

Mamata's All India Trinamool Congress had won more than 62 per cent of the 294 seats, this time around, she improved her tally, registering two-thirds majority. These are the three reasons which led Mamata to a convincing victory:

1. Development initiatives

Mamata earned accolades for various development initiatives in the state, particularly in the rural areas. The West Bengal chief minister may have been unpopular among the urban voters, but she won hearts in the rural areas. Among various development initiatives undertaken by her as the chief minister were "Kanyashree" schemes for girls and "Sabuj Sathi" under which cycles were distributed to students, besides Rs 2kg rice for the eight crore population in the state.

2. Weak Opposition

Undoubtedly, multi-crore scams like Saradha and Narada dented Trinamool's image as the Opposition tried to make it a major issue. But they failed to erode her voters' base because they could not pose a challenge to the Trinamool's support. The Left-Congress tie-up did more harm than good and the BJP does not have the cadre-based following required to pose a challenge to the Trinamool.

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3. Muslim appeasement

Polarisation of Muslim votes did the tricks for the Trinamool. Mamata indulged in blatant Muslim appeasement for the sake of votes. The Congress and Left accused the TMC of patronising criminal elements. She took several decisions to woo the Muslims, who constitute 30 per cent of the population and play a decisive role in about 125 of the 294 Assembly seats in the state. One among them was the allowance of Rs 2,500 for each imam and a stipend of Rs 1,500 to each muezzin. Mamata was also accused of playing soft on the Muslim criminals, in Malda and other places.

Also read: How Mamata benefits from Bengal turning a communal hell hole