New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday said West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee’s decision to “go solo” in the Lok Sabha polls is a sign of her desperation and “death knell” for the ‘INDIA’ alliance of the opposition parties.
In a major setback to the opposition INDIA bloc, Banerjee earlier in the day announced that her party has decided to go alone in West Bengal in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Reacting to the development, BJP co-incharge for West Bengal and IT department head Amit Malviya said in a post on X, “Mamata Banerjee’s decision to fight alone in West Bengal is a sign of desperation. Unable to hold her political ground, she wants to fight all seats, in the hope that she can still be relevant, after the polls.”
“Much against her desire to emerge as the face of the Opposition alliance, no one ever proposed her name. Her several trips to Delhi, to build a national profile, didn’t work. She just couldn’t hide the blood of post poll violence and rid herself of the nauseating stink of appeasement politics, Malviya said.
“An embarrassed Mamata, to save face, pitched for Mallikarjun Kharge, ruling herself out in the process. She realised, despite her bluster, she had no currency in the Opposition camp and had been building ground to snap out for long. But the fact that her announcement to go solo comes just before Rahul Gandhi’s circus arrives in Bengal is a death knell for the I.N.D.I. Alliance,” he added.
BJP national spokesperson Nalin Kohli said it is a “paper alliance” and Banerjee’s comments have made it clear that it has no clarity in its agenda and no leadership.
Taking a jibe at the TMC and INDIA bloc of opposition parties, another BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, “Before political marriage could fructify Talaq is done, Mamata didi declares no alliance in Bengal.”
“On one hand Ram Mandir (was) built, but INDI structure demolished on a daily basis,” Poonawalla added.
Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president Tejasvi Surya described the INDIA bloc as an “unnatural alliance between a snake and a mongoose”, noting that its parties have been fighting one another in different states.
The Left and the Congress fight in Kerala, and the AAP and the Congress fight in Punjab and Delhi, he told reporters, adding that such an “unnatural” alliance is bound to meet a “natural” death.
This alliance was a “non-starter” from the first day, the head of the BJP’s youth wing said.
