‘Last Nail in the Coffin?’ Modi Loses Elections to Mamta Banerjee in West Bengal Assembly

The third wave of pandemic devastated the situation in India. Consequently, it has also hammered the last nail in the coffin for Modi’s regime. The incident could not come at a much better time. Recently, elections took place in West Bengal and BJP lost to Banerjee’s party. This defeat in the West Bengal Assembly is a great shock and setback to the BJP government. Ultimately, this will have effects on other states too. Globally, the COVID situation is not getting any better. India just recorded 400,000 cases for the second day in a row with over 205,000 deaths in total.

The rivalry between Modi and Banerjee is iconic and West Bengal has always remained a battleground for them. For the current elections in West Bengal, Modi bestowed the responsibility to his most trusted man, Amit Shah. Modi assigned Amit to lead the campaign and make a basis for BJP to win.

Modi personally took part in it and attended 20 rallies, while Amit Shah conducted 50 massive rallies. A mass crowd turned up to the call of Amit Shah, but still, they were not able to win. Mamta Banerjee, 66, swept a whopping 213 seats out of 292 seats in West Bengal Assembly. This gave her a large majority (almost two-thirds) in the legislation.

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Mamta Banerjee, Tigress of Bengal

Mamta Banerjee has been the Chief Minister of West Bengal since 2011. She is by far, the only female chief minister in India. She has a massive following in West Bengal due to her reforms and empowering of the people of West Bengal. Her support grew after Modi’s notorious laws of CAA were implemented in West Bengal that ignited religious and ethnic protest, further degrading the support for BJP. Subsequently, for BJP, it is a sign that they must start working on the provincial status and their party performance rather than looking at everything from the federal state. The example of their paramount leader Atal Vajpayee losing 2004 elections to Congress by a small margin is exemplary for BJP.

Some analyst also suggest that Modi has been criticized for focusing on the elections instead of the health system of India. The consequences of not prioritizing the Indian Health system have trickled down into all the regions of the country, specifically in West Bengal. Observers stated that it gave grounds to the COVID-19 virus to easily set its foot in West Bengal.

With a large crowd turning up to BJP rallies, it was evident that cases would surge, and they did. Since the start of election campaigns, cases in West Bengal have increased from 250 per day in mid-March to nearly 17,000 per day at the start of May.

Nonetheless, Banerjee is now the leader of West Bengal. What more to see is that amidst a devastating situation in India right now, will Modi be able to hold on to power in other states or not? Will Modi be able to contain the COVID situation or not?