Congratulating AAP for its “stupendous victory over those who spread hatred” and deriding BJP for its “humiliating defeat” Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday summed up the reasons behind the saffron outfit’s defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections saying “this is people’s victory and a defeat for the arrogant and those who are doing political vendetta.” This even as her party Rajya Sabha MP Darek O’ Brien went steps ahead attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying the result was an indication that “so-called Modi wave is a myth.”
O’ Brien who had thus far stood out among the Trinamool MPs for not having any chit fund allegations against his name said the “clear message behind the Delhi election results is ‘Bhag Modi Bhag’.” He was promptly supported by party MP and Chief Minister’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee who demanded the Prime Minister’s resignation.
“It is a public knowledge that the BJP sought vote in the Prime Minister’s name and that Mr Modi himself led from the front. However, the people of Delhi rejected him and his party. The results are indication of public mood. And Mr Modi should resign immediately” the Trinamool Congress’ own Yuvaraj said adding people had given the BJP a befitting reply. Praising her enemy’s enemy AAP and deriding her enemy BJP the Chief Minister told a rally in Birbhum that Arvind Kejriwal had shown the way to resist an “aggressive, vindictive and arrogant party like the BJP.”
She told the crowd that Delhi saw “a victory for the people and a big defeat for the arrogant who are playing a politics of vendetta. This is a clear case of arrogance and political vendetta getting defeated. The election results show that in a democratic country like India there is no place for political vendetta and those who indulge in it are bound to be defeated.” The BJP’s balloon had burst she added. Banerjee and her party held BJP-led NDA Government responsible for the fallout of the CBI investigations in the Saradha chit fund fraud that had seen many senior Trinamool Congress leaders going to jail in Bengal.
Senior Trinamool leader and Bengal Panchayat Minister Subroto Mukherjee dared the BJP to repeat its 2014 performance saying “the overall performance of a party in power can easily be read through the electoral huge defeat it faced within nine months of its massive victory in the lok Sabha polls. The Delhi election results show that advertisements and television shows cannot bring victory for too long. Finally the advertisement bubble had to burst and it has burst. There was no Modi wave and even if there was any it has stopped.”
The BJP leaders in Bengal however said the Delhi results would bear no impact in Bongaon and Krishnaganj by-elections that were scheduled to take place n February 13. The BJP which secured about 17 percent votes in the lok Sabha elections and won the Basirhat Assembly seat a few months ago was hoping to win the by-polls.