Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said that a historic opportunity had emerged for the BJP to replace the left in West Bengal as the principal opposition party after the left parties fell out of favour with the people.
"There is this historic opportunity to occupy the space of the anti-left feeling and our long-term strategy will be towards that," Jaitley, who came here to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Mamata Banerjee-led government, said.
"This time it is a hat-trick of anti-left voting. No doubt in our mind that our primary objective in the long run is to occupy the space of the left and become principal opposition party in the state. The footprint has been registered by us," he said.