West Bengal Assembly Elections 2016: Here's what worked in Mamata Banerjee's favour

Despite the Narada sting and Saradha scam, the TMC government sailed through due to its laser-like focus on primary areas

"From Narada to Saradha" slogans had filled the Opposition air in the run-up to the elections in Bengal. Today, Mamata Banerjee can smugly say, despite Narada and Saradha, her party reigns in Bengal and by a thumping majority.

Trends indicate that the Trinamool Congress is headed for a much larger mandate at a comfortable 200-plus seats. Right now, of the 294 seats in the assembly, the Trinamool Congress is at 209, the Left Front-Congress alliance (Alliance) is at 77 and BJP has thrown up quite a surprise at five seats.

In terms of vote share, the Trinamool Congress is likely to get 47%; In 2011, the TMC-Congress combine had got 48.54% with TMC at 38.9% vote share and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) at 41%.
 

It's the simple arithmetic of vote share that got the Left Front and the Congress together ahead of the elections. But the operative word there is "simple".

As it turns out, Bengal has rejected the alliance. What's more alarming is that in the 77 seats that the Alliance is leading, it's the Congress which is leading in 41 seats; the Left is at 33.

The face of the Alliance, Surjya Kanta Mishra, is now trailing by more than 5,000 votes. If the final results reflect the trends then it would be a colossal failure of the Left Front-Congress alliance, which was confident of forming the government this time.

The Opposition -- Left Front, Congress and the BJP -- which started the campaign with the theme of industrialising Bengal, was handed a sting video by Narada news portal. The video featured top Trinamool MLAs and MPs taking cash for extending favours to a fictitious company and it was quickly followed by the collapse of an under-construction flyover in the heart of Kolkata killing 24 people.

It was perfect ammunition for the Oppostion that changed tack and made corruption in TMC its main campaign theme. To say it didn't work would be putting it mildly.

Even in the urban and semi-urban areas (including Kolkata), it's a clean sweep for Trinamool. What worked in its favour is its laser-like focus on sectors like roads, water, electricity.

Around 5,212.94km of roads were improved and renovated during 2011-2015 compared to 3,220.28 km during 2007-2011; the number of BPL households electrified increased from 18.18% as on March 31, 2011 to 90.71% in January 2016; number of APL households electrified increased from 52.36% to 97.88% during the same period.

But ask people what they loved most and most of them would list the freebies. Of Bengal's 90 million population, 80 million get rice at Rs 2 per kg. State subsidy support on foodgrains has increased almost 12 times from Rs 516.32 crore during 2010-2011 to Rs 6,000 crore.

The other achievements include: More than 10 million minority students were provided scholarship at Rs 1,921 crore; 97% of the Muslim community has been registered under the OBC category; 20,380 clubs and NGOs were provided 'grants'; 3.3 million girl students have been enrolled under the Kanyasree scheme that cost Rs 1,900 crore; four million boys and girls have received bicycles; under the Yuvasree scheme, financial assistance of Rs ,1500 a month has been extended to 1,00,000 job seekers; 60,000 folk artists have been enrolled under a pension scheme; 21,000 cine and television artists have been covered under group medical insurance scheme.

It's an appease-all strategy that has reaped dividends. The stage is now set for Mamata Banerjee for second term in a row.