Hat-trick for Mamata or win for BJP?

West Bengal goes to assembly polls today to determine whether the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress will score a hat-trick or if the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party's lotus will blossom in Bengal.

BJP, which won only three seats in the last West Bengal assembly elections in 2016, emerged as a strong challenger this time for Mamata's Trinamool, which bagged 211 out of 294 seats in the last polls with its election symbol of "twin flowers in grass".

The ruling party of India gained strength in the last five years and managed to get 18 out of 42 seats in West Bengalin the Lok Sabha (general) elections in 2019. Trinamool secured 22 seats in the polls while National Congress got two seats. In that election Trinamool secured 43.69 percent of the votes while BJP bagged 40.64 percent.

Three lawmakers from TMC have already joined BJP recently, further consolidating its position in the eastern state.

Despite winning just three seats in the last election, the BJP now has 36 legislators in the assembly as 26 from TMC, four from CPIM and three from Congress joined the ruling party.

TMC, the party that came to power first in 2011 by breaking the 34-year reign of the left-leaning Communist Party of India (Marxist), is also striving to retain power for a third consecutive term in the staggered polls.

On the other hand, the Left Front, comprising CPIM, Congress and the newly-formed Indian Secular Front, is yet to make any impact on the voters, show multiple polls surveys.

Of them, Congress ruled West Bengal for 30 years and CPIM for 34 years.

However, Abbas Siddiqui, a Furfura Sharif pirzada, of Indian Secular Front, hogged the limelight after appearing in politics and analysts think Siddiqui can woo Muslim constituents, which is around 27 percent of the electorate in West Bengal and considered TMC supporters.

Both BJP and TMC sought to outdo each other in polls promises and campaign rhetoric and repeatedly claimed they would win over 200 seats in 23 districts. And whichever party gets the magic figure -- 148 seats – will form the government.

The first phase elections will be held for 30 constituencies that will cover five districts -- Paschim Midnapore, Purba Midnapore, Bankura, Jhargram, and Purulia. The eighth and final phase will take place on April 29 and the counting of votes will take place on May 2.

In those 30 constituencies in the last assembly polls in 2016, BJP got 8.6 percent of the votes while in the last Lok Sabha elections which consisted of these 30 seats, the party got 46.31 percent votes -- an increase of 38 percentage points.

However, recent surveys hinted at a neck-to-neck battle between TMC and BJP with no party expected to reach the magic figure.

In the run-up to the elections, BJP has left no tactic unused in its arsenal, deploying heavyweight campaigners and popular actors, singers, and other artists.

Apart from PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shaha, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and movie stars Mithun Chakraborty, Srabanti Chatterjee and singer and central minister Babul Supriyo were on the high-decibel campaigns.

TMC also betted big on strong leaders like Mamata's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, who is considered to be her successor, TMC minister and famous actor Bratya Basu, and popular stars like Dev, Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan, Saayoni Ghosh, Raj Chakraborty and Sayantika Banerjee.

Mamata Banerjee has led the Trinamool campaign, albeit in a wheelchair. She sustained injuries while on a visit to Nandigram, from where she is contesting the polls to take on her former ministerial colleague Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP last December.

Adhikari, a long time minister from TMC and considered to be a key organiser of the party, turns out to be a major factor in the polls. His joining the BJP irked Mamata, forcing her to change her constituency -- from Bhabanipur to Nandigram -- to face Suvendu.

In the first phase, more than 73 lakh voters will decide the fate of a total of 191 candidates, including 21 women candidates across 30 assembly segments.

The elections will be held amid tight security with the Election Commission deploying around 732 companies of Central Armed Police Forces that will guard 10,288 polling booths housed on 7,061 premises as most of the seats are in the once-Naxal-affected Jungle Mahal region.