Kolkata: West Bengal in 2021 had shown the way to the people of Karnataka in 2023 to prove that the BJP is not invincible, leaders of the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress said on Saturday.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that Karnataka results are the beginning of the end of the BJP in the entire nation.
“First West Bengal showed the way. From Bengal to Bengaluru, people have started speaking on the same lines. In the near future, there are Assembly elections in a couple of other states. The BJP will also be defeated there. Finally, in 2024 BJP will be thrown out of power by the people of the country,” she said.
Trinamool’s national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee said: “You can vote for anyone, by exercising your democratic right. Just defeat the BJP. This is what our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had been saying again and again. That has exactly happened in Karnataka. We are happy. West Bengal showed the way in 2021, which has been replicated in Karnataka.”
He also said that voters’ polarisation by using religious sentiments cannot be the strategy of any political party. “The BJP had tried to mislead people again and again using those religious sentiments. I am happy that Bengal has shown the way and Karnataka has replicated that,” he said.
However, despite congratulating the people of Karnataka for the results, both the Banerjees remained silent about Congress which actually steered the path for BJP’s defeat there.
Specifically questioned by the media persons on her views about the Congress leading the opposition alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Chief Minister refused to make any comments. “I have said whatever I had to say,” she said.
Abhishek Banerjee gave the entire credit to the people of Karnataka as he said since the results are reflections of people getting united against the BJP.
Meanwhile, state Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that Karnataka results have proved that only his party can lead an alliance that can defeat the BJP nationally.
“There is no relevance of the theory of an alternative non-Congress and non-BJP front. Congress is in steering position of the anti-BJP front,” Chowdhury said.
He also claimed that Trinamool is actually against a united opposition alliance. “Her (Mamata Banerjee’s) party MPs abstained from voting when we fielded a united opposition candidate against Jagdeep Dhankhar in the polls for Vice President. Trinamool is also disinclined to any floor coordination within the Parliament,” Chowdhury said.
(IANS)
