Why the TMC may be concerned despite Bengal's significant Lok Sabha election victory

The leaders of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) appear to be worried despite their excitement at the party's overwhelming win in the most recent West Bengal Lok Sabha elections. This is mostly being attributed in TMC circles to the fact that the party's candidates underperformed in the Assembly constituencies of multiple state ministers during the Lok Sabha elections, in which the TMC won 29 seats out of 42 compared to the BJP's 12. In numerous wards of urban local bodies throughout the state, the opposition parties were also leading according to the polls.

The TMC now has 138 council members in the 144 wards under the jurisdiction of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), compared to three for the BJP and three for the Left-Congress combination. Both of Kolkata's Lok Sabha seats were won by the TMC. However, its lead was not as great as it was in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019. In 48 KMC wards, the main opposition BJP led, while the Left-Congress combination led in three wards. In 93 wards, the TMC obtained the leads.

According to a top TMC politician, "Our party has lagged behind in the wards of numerous powerful KMC council members, such ward no. 85, where Debashis Kumar, the mayor-in-council, is also the TMC district president for South Kolkata and an MLA in the Rashbehari Assembly sector. The CM's confidante and daughter of state minister Shashi Panja, Pooja Panja, was also behind our party in ward no. 8.

He stated, "Under MLA Paresh Pal's Assembly segment Beleghata, ward no. 31 has the same story. Asim Kumar Basu, a member of the Mayor Parishad, and Sandeep Bakshi, the Mayor-in-Council of Ward No. 72, both had leads for the BJP. It's interesting that Chief Minister Mamata oversees both of these wards. 

He went on, "The BJP also had an advantage over the TMC in the wards held by our senior council members and borough chairpersons, such as Sadhana Bose (ward no. 38, Jorasanko), Sushanta Ghosh (ward no. 108, Kasba), Sudeep Polle (ward no. 123, Behala Purba), and Jui Biswas (ward no. 81, under Tollygunj Assembly segment) (ward no. 63, Bhabanipur)." Additionally, it received a lead in Bishwarup Dey's ward number 48 (Chowringhee Assembly seat) and TMC councillor Sudarshana Mukhopadhyay's ward number 64 (Bhabanipur Assembly seat).