Bengal: Trinamool Congress set to emerge victorious in Basirhat

BJP's hope to make its strongest political statement from the Sandeshkhali-inclusive Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency looked to have been dashed to the ground as its candidate Rekha Patra was outsmarted by Trinamool Congress (TMC) veteran Haji Nurul Islam who was leading with a margin of nearly 2 lakh votes.

The alleged incidents of sexual atrocities on the local women, and land-grab in Sandeshkhali, one of the seven assembly segments of Basirhat, seem to have failed to deliver the BJP the coveted win from the seat.

For the voters at large of the Basirhat constituency, having one of West Bengal's most porous stretches of international border with Bangladesh, the issues of Sandeshkhali were "very local" and did not appeal to them, poll experts felt.

A jubilant Haji Nurul, who was nominated by the TMC instead of sitting MP-actor Nusrat Jahan, attributed his seemingly assured victory to a win of party supremo Mamata Banerjee.

"I was confident of a win. Whatever was spoken about Sandeshkhali was a lie and people never believed them. The videotapes proved that BJP's hand was behind it... It was a dirty conspiracy by the BJP and people gave them a befitting reply," he told PTI.

"It's the magic of Mamata Banerjee, and people have full trust in her...It was not that easy to defeat her only by conspiring, one needed to do some good work," he added.

According to sources in the Election Commission of India, TMC fared better than the BJP in almost every assembly constituency of the Basirhat parliamentary seat, including Sandeshkhali.

Barishat, which has slightly over 54 per cent of the Muslim population, has remained a traditional stronghold of the TMC.

In the 2019 general elections, TMC candidate Nusrat Jahan had a vote share of 54.56 per cent of the total votes, slightly less than its previous record, according to Election Commission data.