Kolkata: In at least 82 assembly seats in West Bengal, the candidate who finished third secured more votes than the winning margin, indicating that a sharp vote split between the second- and third-place holders helped the winning candidate cross the post.
Congress and Trinamool Split Benefits BJP
For example, Congress candidate Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury lost the Behrampore seat to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by 17,548 votes. The Trinamool Congress nominee, who came third, secured 49,586 votes, nearly three times the winning margin, exemplifying how the BJP benefited from the split in votes between Congress and Trinamool.
Trinamool Candidates Lose Due to Vote Splitting
Several heavyweight Trinamool candidates also lost because of a similar vote split. In most cases, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) played the spoilsport. For instance, Chandrima Bhattacharya would have most likely won the Dum Dum North seat for Trinamool had the CPM not fetched 38,428 votes to finish third. The BJP won the seat by 26,404 votes.
Aroop Biswas would have easily defeated the BJP's Papiya Adhikari in Tollygunge had the CPM not taken away 30,335 votes. The BJP managed to win here by 6,013 votes. Likewise, Trinamool lost the Jadavpur seat to the BJP by 27,716 votes. The CPM's Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya finished third here with 41,148 votes.
In Cossipore-Belgachia, Trinamool's Atin Ghosh lost to the BJP's Ritesh Tiwary by 1,651 votes. The CPM polled 11,151 votes here to finish third. In Behala West, Trinamool's Ratna Chatterjee lost to the BJP's Indranil Khan by 24,699 votes. The CPM finished third with 30,676 votes.
In Uttarpara, Trinamool's Shirshanya Bandyopadhyay lost to the BJP's Dipanjan Chakraborty by 8,685 votes. The CPM was in third place with 17,136 votes. In Chandannagar, Trinamool's Indranil Sen lost to the BJP's Deepanjan Kumar Guha by 13,441 votes. The CPM again finished third with 22,760 votes.
Vote Split Works in Trinamool's Favor in Some Seats
For Trinamool, the vote split worked in its favor in Kamarhati, where Madan Mitra defeated the BJP candidate by 5,643 votes because the CPM secured third place by polling 20,203 votes. Similarly, in Domkal, the only seat that the CPM won, Congress fetched 30,453 votes to finish third, allowing the Left party to defeat the BJP by 16,296 votes.
In Noapara, the BJP's Arjun Singh won with a margin of 17,656 votes, while the CPM came in third position with 17,696 votes. In Darjeeling, the BJP won by only 6,057 votes, while an independent candidate, who stood third, secured 48,635 votes.
