NEW DELHI: The outgoing chief ministers of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala – Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin and Pinarayi Vijayan – had a quiet day on Wednesday, meeting party leaders and reviewing their losses in the recently concluded Assembly elections.
In West Bengal, Banerjee refused to resign from his position as Prime Minister despite the landslide victory achieved by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the recent legislative elections. On Wednesday, she held a meeting with newly elected Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs and senior leaders at her residence to discuss next steps, party functionaries said.
In the closed-door meeting, Banerjee claimed that the BJP “looted” ballot boxes and indicated that the party would move the Supreme Court of India, officials said. The term of the current West Bengal Assembly ends on Thursday.
Kunal Ghosh, TMC spokesperson and newly elected Beliagatha MLA, defended her decision, calling it a “language of protest” in a democracy. He said: “Mamata Didi’s failure to tender her resignation is a language of protest…”
On Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 207 seats in the 294-member assembly. The TMC won only 80 seats, with Banerjee losing her Bhabanipur constituency.
In Tamil Nadu, Stalin, whose Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) faced a crushing defeat at the hands of actor-turned-politician Vijay Tamilaja Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) in the April 23 Assembly elections, met alliance partner DMDK leader Premalatha Vijayakanth and former chief O Panneerselvam, who joined the DMK in the run-up to the elections and won from the Bhudinayakanur seat, party leaders said. Later in the day, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth visited Stalin at his residence in Chennai and expressed solidarity with the DMK chief in “difficult times”, the party leaders added.
The previous day, Stalin met with senior party leaders to review the KDP’s defeat.
Vijay’s TVK won 108 seats in the 234-member Assembly, while the DMK managed only 59 seats. The AIADMK won 47 seats.
In Kerala, outgoing Chief Minister Vijayan, whose resignation was accepted by Governor Rajendra Arlikar, attended the state secretariat meeting of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday to review the party’s defeat. Vijayan is yet to issue a statement on the loss. When asked about his silence, Communist Party of India (CPI) state minister MV Govindan said: “He will respond at the appropriate time.”
The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front lost to the Congress-led United Democratic Front, which won 102 seats in the 140-member Assembly compared to the Left Democratic Front’s 35 seats. Party leaders said he gave up his official residence and his car and moved to the party residence.
(With inputs from state offices and PTI)
