Mamata led TMC bags over 30 seats in Bengal
The ‘stormy petrel’ was upfront in saying that INDIA partners should ensure and do everything possible to let ‘Modi and his team’ go out of power and ‘let INDIA come in’
Kolkata: What the Congress leadership did not say clearly, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said in no uncertain terms, after her party’s emphatic win in the Lok Sabha polls. The ‘stormy petrel,’ whose party bagged 30-odd out of 42 seats in the State, defying all exit poll predictions and BJP’s projections, was upfront in saying that INDIA partners should ensure and do everything possible to let ‘Modi and his team’ go out of power and ‘let INDIA come in’.
Mamata said that she would send her nephew All India Trinamul Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who won by a record margin of close to 7.5 lakh votes from Diamond Harbor constituency, to attend the meeting of the INDIA members on Wednesday to decide on the alliance’s future course of action. Bengal CM also demanded that the Prime Minister the Home Minister must refrain from taking up the same responsibilities on moral grounds.
While congratulating Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Congress central leadership, the TMC supremo minced no word in blaming the State Congress leadership for loss of few seats in the State. Interestingly, State Congress president and leader of Congress's Lok Sabha team Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a five time MP, himself lost to Yusuf Pathan, ace former cricketer and a political greenhorn by nearly 80,000 votes, at his home turf Beharampur.
Most significantly, even at the politically sensitive Sandeshkhali, which falls under the Basirhat constituency, TMC candidate Hazi Nurul Islam scored a thumping victory over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handpicked candidate Rekha Patro. Neither Sandeshkhali nor recruitment, coal, cattle scam turned out to be any issue in this election.
In another significant takeaway, while all celebrity candidates fielded by TMC - Shatrughan Sinha, Kirti Azad, Satyani Ghosh, Sayantika Banerjee, Rachana Banerjee, June Malia won by comfortable margins, political turncoats like Arjun Singh and Tapas Roy (both of whom switched camps from TMC to join the BJP at the eleventh hour), lost by large margins. While TMC got nearly 47 per cent votes, BJP stopped at close to 40 per cent.
The election results will put to rest propaganda that the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in the State might be toppled ahead of the scheduled poll dates in 2026. Quite contrary to Exit Poll predictions, TMC has in fact raised its tally significantly from the 2019 Lok Sabha polls,when Mamata’s party had won 22 seats.