West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday reiterated that all political parties in the Opposition must work together to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), emphasising that there was no point in depending on the Congress. “Congress is not interested. They are losing their credibility,” she said, speaking to journalists on the results of the Assembly polls in five States. The BJP has retained power in four of the five States that went to polls.
According to Ms. Banerjee, the BJP has not secured the popular mandate in Uttar Pradesh as the percentage of votes polled and the number of seats won by the Samajwadi Party (SP) increased. “Akhilesh [Yadav] should not be depressed. He should seek forensic evaluation of electronic voting machines (EVM),” the Chief Minister said.
Ms. Banerjee also said that the split in Opposition votes in Uttar Pradesh between different camps had benefited the BJP. “He [Mr. Akhilesh Yadav] fought alone like Abhimanyu and this is not a popular mandate for the BJP,” she said.
Ms. Banerjee tried to question the BJP leadership’s claims of returning to power at the Centre in 2024. Describing such remarks as “impractical”, she said that it was “very difficult to predict what will happen in the next two years”.
Asked about the Trinamool Congress’ performance in Goa, where the party failed to win a single seat, she said that in a short span of three months, her party has polled 6% votes, which was “more than enough”. On the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) supporting the BJP in Goa, Ms. Banerjee said that it was agreed in a pre-poll alliance that parties would not support the BJP. “We don’t have any member (MLA). So they [the MGP] are deciding their own policy. We do not like it,” she said.
