LETTERS december 28, 2024 vol lix no 52 EPW Economic & Political Weekly 4 General Election Outcomes in West Bengal T his letter is a response to Jyotiprasad Chatterjee and Suprio Basu (“Politics of Regionalism and Welfare: The Twin Aces That Helped the Trinamool Defeat the BJP,” EPW, 21 September 2024), who claimed that regional populism combined with strategic welfarism entrenched in the spirit of political clientelism could pos- sibly have been electorally productive for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024 in West Bengal (WB). While I acknowledge the importance of welfarism and regional populism, I also identify two other factors that had a bearing on voters’ behaviour in WB. First, one-way polarisation of minority votes; and second, the pattern of politi- cal foundation in WB. Chatterjee and Basu asserted that the electorate of WB seemed politically polar- ised between the TMC and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), going beyond com- munal polarisation. However, if we look at the grassroots, we may find a one-way polarisation of Muslim votes towards the TMC. The notification issued by the union government to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act right before the 2024 general elections caused concern among Muslims. Muslims are largely concentrated in the north WB districts of Malda (51.3%) and Uttar Dinajpur (49.9%), the central WB districts of Murshidabad (66.3%) and Birbhum (37%), and the south Bengal districts of South 24-Parganas (35.6%), Nadia (26.8%), and North 24-Parganas (25.8%). Muslims have a major stake in the outcome of the elections in the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, more particularly in 14 out of 42 parlia- mentary constituencies in WB, namely Diamond Harbour, Jaynagar, Raiganj, Balurghat, Maldaha Uttar, Maldaha Dak- shin, Murshidabad, Jangipur, Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Basirhat, Uluberia, Bolpur, and Birbhum. The results of these elec- tions—in constituencies that have a signifi- cant Muslim population—demonstrated that 10 out of these 14 seats were won by the TMC, while three seats, Raiganj, Bal- urghat, and Maldaha Uttar, were won by the BJP with a very low margin, as Muslim New Year Greetings EPW wishes all its readers, contributors, and well-wishers the very best for 2025. votes there were largely divided between the TMC and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI[M])–Indian National Congress (INC) alliance, with the BJP be- ing able to consolidate Hindu votes. It can be said that the Hindu vote in WB was mostly fragmented across all seats, except for a few exceptions where Hindus are either a minority or are ap- proximately half of the population, such as Baharampur, Raiganj, Maldaha Uttar, and Maldaha Dakshin. According to the Election Commission of India data, in these parliamentary elections, the BJP leads in 20 of the 49 Hindu-dominated assembly constituencies in WB, where over 90% of the electorate is Hindu, while the TMC leads in 29. However, the minority vote bank of the TMC remains largely intact due to the failure of the CPI(M)–INC alli- ance and the Indian Secular Front to build an alternative to the TMC for Mus- lim societies. The TMC leads in 109 of the 146 assembly constituencies with a Mus- lim population of at least 25%, while the BJP leads in just 25, and the INC–CPI(M) coalition is ahead in 12. Furthermore, there are 74 assembly constituencies with a Muslim population between 40% and 90%, showing that the TMC leads in 54 and the BJP leads in just eight. This shows that the TMC has strong and steady sup- port from Muslims across the state. It in- dicates a one-way polarisation of Muslim votes in favour of the TMC, with the BJP’s vote bank having been impacted due to the splitting of its targeted Hindu vote bank. TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee accused its Indian National Develop- mental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) allies— the CPI(M) and the INC—of cooperating with the BJP in WB, claiming that the IN- DIA coalition no longer exists in the state. Banerjee urged voters in WB not to vote in favour of the INC and the CPI(M) if they wanted to defeat the BJP. Therefore, the TMC, BJP, CPI(M), and INC received an unequal share of Muslim votes in several Ever since the first issue in 1966, EPW has been India’s premier journal for comment on current affairs and research in the social sciences. It succeeded Economic Weekly (1949–1965), which was launched and shepherded by Sachin Chaudhuri, who was also the founder-editor of EPW. As editor for 35 years (1969–2004) Krishna Raj gave EPW the reputation it now enjoys. 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