As West Bengal voted in the first phase across 152 seats on Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Union Home Minister Amit Shah steered rival ‘war rooms’ from Kolkata, closely monitoring real-time turnout and booth-level feedback in a high-stakes electoral contest.
Banerjee operated from Kalighat, accompanied by her nephew and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, while Shah coordinated from the BJP’s Salt Lake office along with senior leaders, including Union minister Bhupendra Yadav.
Polling saw brisk participation, with turnout reaching 78.77 per cent of 3.60 crore electors by 3 pm, even as sporadic incidents of violence, intimidation and alleged assaults on BJP candidates were reported from several areas.
From early morning, Kalighat, the political nerve centre of the Trinamool Congress, functioned as a command hub. Party sources said Banerjee and her team tracked district-wise trends, reviewed feedback and issued instructions to local leaders, particularly in sensitive pockets, reflecting heightened vigilance.
Also read: No infiltrators in Bengal after BJP win: Amit Shah
The alertness follows Banerjee’s repeated campaign warnings about alleged EVM manipulation, with the chief minister urging voters to remain watchful and reject malfunctioning machines.
At the BJP’s Salt Lake office, Shah’s presence underscored the central leadership’s focus on the Bengal contest. He held closed-door meetings with party leaders, reviewing turnout patterns, reports of disturbances and inputs from booth-level workers, with particular attention to north Bengal — a region crucial to the party’s strategy.
The parallel operations highlighted contrasting approaches. The TMC relied on its decentralised grassroots network, with Banerjee leaning on district-level coordination, while the BJP deployed a more centralised, data-driven model, with Shah directly overseeing the campaign.
As reports of violence and allegations of intimidation surfaced through the day, both camps used their respective control rooms to calibrate responses swiftly, both politically and organisationally.
With one more phase of polling to follow, Thursday’s ‘war room’ activity offered a glimpse into the intensity of the contest, where the battle is being fought not only on the ground but also through data, messaging and rapid decision-making at the top.
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