Till 2014, BJP had remained a marginal player in Bengal politics contesting the Lok Sabha polls as a junior ally of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 1998, 1999 and 2004. The decline of the Left FrontIt was the ‘Modi wave’ of 2014 that enabled the BJP to achieve a breakthrough of getting 17% of the popular vote in West Bengal and winning two seats without any alliance. In the 2016 Assembly election, while the TMC contested alone, the CPI(M)-led Left Front forged a State-level alliance with the Congress for the first time in West Bengal. A massive vote shiftWith every by-election in West Bengal since 2016, the BJP has gained in vote share at the cost of the Left Front. West Bengal is a border State with a nearly 10 crore population of which 27% belong to the Muslim minority.

Source: The Hindu December 28, 2020 18:52 UTC