As the Trinamul Congress swept the Lok Sabha election with a massive victory, the city of joy went on an unofficial holiday today. With citizens hooked on to their TV sets and mobile phones watching the polls results, the city roads remained abuzz with mainly party supporters. Spates of rallies dotted the city roads right after 11 a.m. and increased as the day proceeded. Party supporters swarmed the streets applying green gulal on each other. While bikers, holding party flags, were spotted every now then in various pockets of the city, others celebrated the victory on foot, gathering in large numbers shouting political slogans.Sights of hundreds of women gathering and playing gulal and dancing on their favourite tunes were seen in various parts of the city.
Some of them even carried clay pots with the iconic ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ written on it and celebrated the victory. By evening, city roads at several places turned ‘green’ with ‘abir.’ The poll result declaration made the day for the sweet shop owners and vendors selling colours and abir. Amid the heated political atmosphere, traditional sweets took a backseat and ones with party symbols ruled the day. Some of the sweet shops even sold sweets of various colours, each symbolizing a particular party. L ikewise, shops and stalls selling abir of various colours have had good business since yesterday with party supporters buying colours to celebrate the win.
The impact of the poll results was seen in the virtual world as well. Social media platforms today were taken by storm with different kinds of political memes. Netizens celebrated the victory and failure of various political parties with a bout of hilarious photos, GIFs and posters sending their messages camouflaged with funny jokes and images. While ‘Bengal’ was trending on social media platforms till late afternoon today, the memes, filled with wit and humour, targeted both the Trinamul Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party were the focal point of sarcasm. As Didi’s wave swept through the polls, memes on social media took a centrestage.
As the frenzy of the landslide victory gripped the party supporters, many citizens observed the day as an unofficial holiday. Several citizens postponed their outside activities to be able to catch up with the latest poll updates. The city roads in many pockets were largely sans any commuters. Even buses ran in fewer numbers as a large number of them were yet to return from poll duty. Those hitting the roads had countable commuters on board. City’s shopping hotspots like New Market, Esplanade Hatibagan, Gariahat remained largely deserted with hardly any buyers.