Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Tuesday slammed the infighting within parties that are part of the India Bloc, while saying this is “what voters reject”.
The former Rajya Sabha MP slammed the allies’ “gloating” over the Trinamool Congress’s loss in Bengal and the DMK’s defeat in Tamil Nadu as “shameful”. “This kind of gloating coming from within India’s own alliance over the failure of TMC and DMK is shameful,” Chaturvedi said in a post on X.
In West Bengal, the BJP defeated Mamata Banerjee’s TMC to form a government in the state for the first time, winning 207 seats. The Transitional Military Council won 80 seats in the assembly elections. Meanwhile, the actor-turned-politician’s party, TVK, emerged as the single largest party in Tamil Nadu with 108 seats, with the DMK reduced to 59 seats.
Mamata and Stalin also lost the constituencies from which they were contesting – Bhabanipur and Kolathar. Both the TMC and the DMK were part of the Indian opposition bloc.
‘I saw similar boasting when Kejriwal and Tejashwi lost.’
Pointing out the behavior of some allies after their loss, Chaturvedi also drew parallels with the poll setbacks faced by the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar.
Read also | Election results explain the reasons behind the swing in votes in Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam
“I saw similar boasting when Arvind Kejriwal and Tejaswi Yadav (part of the All India Alliance) lost and the recent AAP split,” the Sena leader (UBT) said, adding that these allies are “now aiming their guns” at Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled for next year.
Chaturvedi said that “voters reject” such divisions, claiming that the BJP is “exploiting them”. “These divisions are exactly what voters are rejecting and the BJP is exploiting. 2024 was not one party leading the way in opposition, but a joint collaborative effort of all parties coming together,” she said in the post, while urging the parties to “remember” why the India Bloc was formed.
“So please step back and remember the spirit that gave rise to the India Alliance in the first place,” she added.
‘Put petty politics aside’: Rahul warns against ‘schadenfreude’
Chaturvedi’s post comes at a time when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, one of the prominent faces of the opposition bloc, took to social media platform X to criticize “schadenfreude” in his party and others.
“Some in Congress, and others, are bragging about the TMC’s loss,” the Lok Sabha MP said, alleging “theft” of Assam and Bengal.
“They need to understand this clearly – stealing Assam and Bengal is a huge step forward by the BJP in its mission to destroy Indian democracy,” he said, urging allies and his party leaders to “put petty politics aside.” Gandhi added: “This is not about one party or the other. This is about India.”
