Following Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) victory in the Tripura Assembly elections, party’s West Bengal State president Dilip Ghosh said that West Bengal is the “next stop” for BJP.
“After Tripura, it is Bengal. It would be our next stop. We have won in Tripura despite having very little organisational strength. Compared to Tripura our organisation in West Bengal is much stronger and widespread,” Mr. Ghosh told The Hindu . Referring to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s recent remarks that she would be happy if the Left Front managed to retain power in Tripura, Mr. Ghosh alleged that the Chief Minister "is now trying" to use the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) to keep BJP out of power in Bengal.
“I don’t know how bad the CPI(M) is feeling after the defeat in Tripura. But I am sure that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is more sad (about the outcome),” said Mr. Ghosh. Former Trinamool Congress [TMC] leader, Mukul Roy, who is recently selected as the convener of forthcoming Panchayat election in Bengal, said that the change in Tripura will influence voters in Bengal.
“This (Tripura results) will definitely have an impact on the upcoming Panchayat polls in West Bengal,” BJP leader and former TMC general secretary Mukul Roy told journalists.
"We have full support": TMC
Trinamool Congress (TMC) secretary general and State’s Education Minister Partha Chattarjee scoffed at the BJP State president’s remarks and said that there is no reason for "them to get excited with the Tripura result."
“I want to tell those (BJP cadres) who have started celebrations here after the Tripura Assembly elections results that there is no reason for them to get excited. Remember, it is Mamata Banerjee who is the Chief Minister here and people have full support for her,” said Mr. Chatterjee. He also said that the result of the Assembly elections in Tripura will have “no effect” in Bengal.
Mr. Chatterjee accused the CPI-M of “arrogance” and said that the CPI-M leadership never realised that to fight against the BJP it also needs the “support of anti-BJP forces” in Tripura. “CPI-M’s arrogance and BJP’s use of source and force played a key role in the Tripura election result,” said Mr. Chatterjee.
