Mamata Banerjee on Sunday told her party’s counting machinery for the 267-booth Bhabanipur Assembly seat that a 200-plus seat count for Trinamool Congress was a given, and that they should not leave their posts till a victory certificate was issued for the key seat.
“The BJP is not coming, take my word for it. We are. Be patient till the last. Reach the counting centre by 5am, do not leave till I give the go-ahead and a victory certificate is issued. We are winning in Bhabanipur, and we are comfortably winning the state,” she was quoted as saying.
“You have done all the hard work against every possible conspiracy by the BJP-EC unholy alliance, all summer, and you must not flag or fail at the final stage,” she purportedly added.
Sources said that Mamata apprehended every possible kind of foul play for the Bhabanipur seat, where her former protege and current bête noire Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP is her principal challenger.
“Keep your cool, do not lose composure. Do not for a moment be swayed by the exit polls or whatever else they show on TV. We are going to form our fourth consecutive government here, with over 200 seats,” she was quoted as saying.
“Everyone in Trinamool Congress must, must, must wait for my declaration in a news conference before they leave their posts. Remember this, above all.”
Trinamool believes that the “BJP-EC nexus” will leave no proverbial stone unturned to ensure a “fabricated” defeat for her in the south Calcutta seat, the way it was done for her 1,956-vote defeat to Adhikari in Nandigram five years ago.
Irrespective of the statewide outcome, Bhabanipur, with 76 per cent non-Muslim electors, is a prestige fight for the ruling ecosystem.
“A statewide total 200-plus is a given, Didi believes, and if that happens then the Bhabanipur outcome is immaterial. But she really wants to win, to prove a point here,” said a Trinamool senior.
Mamata’s 2021 by-poll victory margin of over 58,000 was eroded by the BJP to barely 8,000 in the Lok Sabha election of 2024.
Around 23 per cent of the deletions were Muslimelectors.
After that, the contentious special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls shrunk the electorate of the diverse, cosmopolitan constituency from 2.06 lakh to barely 1.6 lakh this summer.
“Bhabanipur was rendered touch-and-go by the SIR. Didi did well, nonetheless, but must not lose the seat to counting fraud. That is what we are trying to ensure,” said an MLA.
Of the eight wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation that Bhabanipur comprises, Trinamool led in just three in 2024.
The challenge is to maximise those leads and recover at least one or two of the BJP-led five wards.
“The way the voting took place on April 29, she (Mamata) should still win. But whether the margin will be 2,000 or 20,000 remains to be seen. We did everything we needed to. Now the outcome of that needs to be protected at all costs,” said a Trinamool councillor. “She is winning us 200+ seats, the least that we can do for her is ensure that she wins her own home turf.”