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Mamata Banerjee's advice to Congress after its election flop show
After the BJP registered massive triumphs in elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared the results of the 2024 election could be glimpsed in those of 2022.
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that if the Congress wanted the opposition to unite - to fight the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election - it had to be positive and patient. The Trinamool chief cautioned the Congress against aggression and dismissed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that the results of yesterday's assembly elections had decided the outcome of a general election two years away. It is 'impractical' to suggest that election victories this year could settle those in 2024, she said.
"If Congress wants we all can fight (the 2024 election) together (but) don't be aggressive for now, be positive. This (winning elections in four states) will be a big loss for the BJP. This (that 2022 election results will decide 2024 ) is impractical," she said.
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Yesterday, after the BJP registered massive triumphs in elections in four of five states, the prime minister declared the results of the 2024 election could be glimpsed in those of 2022.
"After the 2019 polls, some political pundits had said 2017 poll results had decided the 2019 outcome. I think they will say the 2022 poll verdict decided the outcome of 2024 elections," the prime minister said last night.
Mamata today called that remark 'impractical'.
The Bengal chief minister, who campaigned for Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party in the UP election, also alleged 'loot and malpractice of electronic voting machines (EVM)' during the counting of votes from the northern state yesterday.
Her comment was in reference to Akhilesh's allegation Wednesday that EVMs were transported by the Varanasi district magistrate without informing the candidates.
The SP chief claimed it was a move by the BJP to 'steal votes'.
"Akhilesh Yadav shouldn't be disheartened and should seek forensic tests of the same EVM," Mamata said, pointing out the SP's vote share had increased - from 20 per cent in the 2017 election to 37 per cent in 2022.
The BJP's victory in UP, Goa, Manipur, and Uttarakhand has left Congress leaders introspecting on their political roadmap and strategies. Shashi Tharoor tweeted Thursday to say all those who believed in the GOP were 'hurting from the results'.
"It is time to reaffirm the idea of India that the Congress has stood for and the positive agenda it offers the nation. And to reform our organisational leadership in a manner that will reignite those ideas and inspire the people," he said.
The Trinamool and the Congress have been at loggerheads over the past months - sparring before the Bengal elections last year and leading up to the Goa polls last month.
Mamata, who led her party to an enormous win in Bengal and in this year's civic body polls, has often pushed for a grand alliance among opposition parties to take on the BJP in 2024.
She visited Mumbai and Delhi last year and met prominent opposition leaders, including Congress' interim president Sonia Gandhi, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar.
Last month Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao said he would launch an anti-BJP front ahead of the 2024 election. With this in mind he too went to Mumbai and met Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar. KCR, as he is called, was supposed to meet Mamata too but such a meeting has not yet materialised.
Unlike the AAP, which now has governments in two states, the Trinamool remains confined to Bengal for now. It contested in Goa but flopped. It has plans to contest in Tripura next year.
