FROM DIDI TO DADA

Even with the final figures yet to come in, it is certain that ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has defeated BJP on two key counts seat and vote share. The Mamata Banerjee-led has either government bagged (or is leading in) 29 seats up from 18 in 2019-out of 42, while its vote share has gone up by approximately 3 percent; the BJP, in turn, has lost at least half a dozen seats compared to that in 2019.

- Suvojit Bagchi

The victory is attributed to Mamata Banerjee's "mentorship" and party's general secretary Abhishek's "drive" by the cadres and the leaders.

After being in power for well over a decade, what has worked for Mamata, Abhisekh and the team is a question that needs to be asked and answered - more by the state BJP than any other interest groups. Nearly unanimously the poll pundits and the public accepted on Tuesday night that the main weapon in Mamata's armory is still working - the direct cash subsidies.

Lakkhir Bhandar - the welfare scheme to provide basic income support of female heads of the family - has done remarkably well. Those who criticized Lakkhir Bhandar and other welfare schemes as "freebies" have been forced to accept that it has worked.

Secondly, TMC feared that an apparent rise of Left Front and Congress may split the 2530 percent Muslim vote which had firmly backed Mamata. This is one reason why possibly the TMC 'engineered' a split between a predominantly Muslim party Indian Secular Front and the Left-Congress alliance.