The NDA-led coalition is ready to form the government for the third time in a row. NDA got 293 seats, whereas the opposition I.N.D.I. Alliance got a total of 232 seats. After the result, the bastions of political giants (who claim to be) have been very strongly broken. In the Odisha Assembly results, the BJP defeated Naveen Patnaik, ready to form the government in Odisha in full majority for the first time.
The same situation happened in West Bengal’s Behrampur constituency, where Yusuf Pathan, a Trinamool Congress candidate, defeated Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary, a Congress candidate and sitting MP with the majority of 64, 084 and became the Member of Parliament for the first time.
Adhir Ranjan has been serving the Behrampur constituency since 1999, approximately for twenty-five years. According to the Election Commission of India, TMC’s Yusuf received 423,451 votes whereas Congress’s Adhir received 359, 367 votes. BJP candidate Dr. Nirmal Kumar Saha was third with 323, 685 votes.
After winning the election Yusuf said to the Media, ‘ “I congratulate all of you who have been with me. I am happy. It is not only my win but also of all the workers. Records are made to be broken. I respect Adhir Ranjan. I will continue to do so. I will make a sports academy first so that they can make a career. I will also work for industries. I will be living here and working for the people. I will also be in Gujarat as my family is there. I have got a new family in Baharampur. I talked to Didi (Mamata Banerjee). They are happy.”
As far as the demography of Behrampur is concerned, from where TMC candidate Yusuf easily defeated the five-time MP, there are around 52 per cent of Muslim voters in total. This clearly indicates why it was a cakewalk for Pathan.
Yusuf does not belong to Behrampur, not even from West Bengal. He is from Gujrat and his whole family lives there, but it seems voters of Behrampur don’t even care about him being an outsider. For them, what mattereted was the religion of the candidate. If he or she belongs to the same they are happy to vote for them.
I.N.D.I Alliance alleged that TMC is with them but TMC acts differently. Mamata Banerjee made it clear before the polls that there will be no alliance in with the I.N.D.I. in Bengal. TMC fought for every forty-one seat against the BJP and Congress, but in the centre, they claimed to be together because of the BJP, especially PM Modi.
In North India, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, the MY (Muslim-Yadav) factor worked against the BJP and let Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party win 37 seats, which makes him the largest party in Uttar Pradesh.
Adhir was vocal about Mamta Banerjee and her rule in West Bengal, and because of this, he was sometimes snubbed by his party leaders.
Now that Adhir will not be in the Lok Sabha, let’s see if Congress will select him for Rajya Sabha as the voice of the party.
Neither the Congress nor Adhir Ranjan denies the fact that in many parts of Bharat, especially where the Muslim majority lives they don’t even care for whom they are voting for, what matters is the religion of the contestant.
