For many years, the Indian state of West Bengal was one of the few places where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party could not win. But that has now changed.
Modi’s party, the BJP, won the state election on Monday. This is a very big deal because West Bengal has more than 100 million people — that’s more than the population of Germany. So this election felt almost like a national vote.
The BJP has been trying to win Bengal for a long time. Now, it has finally beaten Mamata Banerjee’s party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which had been in power for 15 years. Before that, a Communist party ruled for 34 years.
Political experts say the BJP had been getting about 39% of the votes in the last three elections. This time, it got over 44%, which was enough to win.
The TMC was very strong because of its support from women, Muslims, and many Hindus. Women especially liked Banerjee’s welfare programs. But this time, the BJP promised even more cash and benefits for women. Some voters felt the TMC’s help was no longer enough.
The BJP also talked a lot about corruption in the TMC government, like a big scam involving teacher recruitment. It did not just attack Banerjee personally.
Muslims make up about 27% of West Bengal’s population. Most of them still supported the TMC. But the BJP tried to bring more Hindu voters together.
There was also a big controversy before the election. Nearly three million voters were removed from the voter list. The Election Commission said it was to clean up the list. But Banerjee and others said this was unfair, especially to poor and Muslim voters.
Still, most experts say that alone does not explain why the BJP won.
In other parts of India, there were also big changes. In Tamil Nadu, a famous actor named Vijay won the election with his new party. In Kerala, the Congress party defeated the Communist government. The only place the BJP lost was in Assam, where it still kept power.
Winning West Bengal is a huge victory for Modi and his home minister, Amit Shah, who ran the campaign. Experts say this win makes Shah the most likely person to replace Modi as prime minister in the future.
For decades, West Bengal was proud to be different from the rest of India. Now that the BJP has finally won there, it may mark the start of a new era in Indian politics.
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