DHAKA: From being a marginal player till recently, the BJP leapfrogged to the centre-stage of Bengal politics on Friday, emerging as a major force in a state swept by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).

The TMC secured leads in as many as 34 out of the 42 seats but the BJP managed to increase its vote share to a significant 18% compared to a meagre 6% in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

However, the BJP will have to be content with just two seats for the time being.

The BJP surge came mainly at the cost of Left, the coalition that ruled Bengal for 34 years. Till last reports came in, the Left was made to grovel with marginal leads in just two seats, Murshidabad and Raiganj.

In the face of a rout in the country, the Congress was able to hold its own in the state where it was ahead in five seats. In 2009, the party had won six seats.

‘We had said earlier the opposition has no agenda and that’s why they had resorted to unlimited maligning and disinformation campaign. The people of Bengal have given them a fitting reply,’ remarked parliamentary affairs minister and secretary general of TMC Partha Chatterjee.

The BJP state president Rahul Sinha felt that the 2014 election was a ‘new beginning for the party’.

‘According to our estimates, our vote share has crossed 18%. In many constituencies such as Kolkata South, Kolkata North, Malda South we have emerged as the second contender with the Left and other parties distant third and fourth,’ Sinha added, reports Hindustan Times.

BJP candidate from Basirhat Samik Bhattcharyya claimed that the party would have won more seats had the ‘Election Commission ensured free and fair polls. Instead what happened in Bengal was muscle flexing by the ruling Trinamool Congress’.

The eclipse of the Left was, perhaps, as remarkable as the rise of the BJP. In 2009, the Left’s tally was 15 seats while Trinamool had 19.

BDST: 1841 HRS, MAY 16, 2014