Kolkata. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s slogan ‘Khela hobe’ in the assembly elections remained the center of discussion this whole year. The state witnessed political turmoil. Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee was sworn in as the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the third time in a row, after a thumping victory in the state assembly elections.
However, he had to face defeat in Nandigram seat. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shubhendu Adhikari defeated Banerjee in Nandigram seat in a big turnaround. Later, Banerjee won the by-election in her stronghold Bhawanipur by a record margin. The political violence that erupted in Bengal shook the state and allegations of election fraud were also leveled. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the West Bengal Police is probing cases of violence after the assembly elections, in which several people were injured and houses and several buildings were torched.
In the election rallies of the main opposition BJP, almost all its top leaders spoke of “Hinduism”. The Trinamool Congress, however, invoked “Bangla pride” to stop the saffron party and won 213 seats in the 294-member assembly. At the same time, BJP got 77 seats, Independents and ISF candidate got one seat each. In the ‘do or die’ assembly elections, the Left Front, which ruled Bengal for 34 years, could not even open an account and the Congress did not even get a seat.
After a big victory in Bengal, the Trinamool, full of enthusiasm, has started preparations to expand its party in Tripura, Meghalaya and Goa as well. Even after the election, the standoff between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress in Bengal continued throughout the year.
Within a week of the swearing-in of the new government, the CBI arrested two ministers (a Trinamool MLA and a former party leader) in the ‘Narad sting operation’ case, following which the party attacked the Narendra Modi-led central government. Accused of using central agencies for retaliation.
Apart from political turmoil, the state also faced the wrath of COVID-19 this year. Till December 28, more than 16 lakh cases of COVID-19 were reported in the state and so far 19,733 people have died due to infection. Trinamool blamed the Election Commission’s decision to conduct assembly elections in eight phases for the increasing cases of infection.
At the same time, the state was also plagued by natural calamity and cyclone ‘Yas’ killed many people and caused a lot of devastation. The bitterness between the state government and the Center reached a new level when Banerjee did not attend a review meeting on cyclone ‘Yas’ chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At the same time, the Trinamool Congress’s success in the elections continued and the party won 134 out of 144 wards in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections. The state government this year also requested UNESCO to accord “intangible heritage” status to Kolkata’s Durga Puja.